"Part of Your World" is a popular song written by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman from the 1989 Disney animated feature film, The Little Mermaid. Originally recorded by American actress and singer Jodi Benson in her film role as Ariel, "Part of Your World" is a Broadway-style ballad in which the film's heroine, a mermaid, expresses her desire to become human.

"Part of Your World" was written at the behest of Ashman, who felt that it was necessary for Ariel to have a song in which she shares with the audience her hopes and dreams, similar to a traditional Broadway musical. The song has been mostly positively received by critics, who praised Ashman and Menken's songwriting abilities as well as Benson's vocal performance. Despite being the film's theme song and critically lauded, "Part of Your World" did not receive a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, while The Little Mermaid's "Under the Sea" and "Kiss the Girl" did.

Believing that, in a musical, it is necessary for the heroine (Ariel) to at some point sing about her goals and what she hopes to achieve in life, Ashman wrote the lyrics for "Part of Your World", which he referred to as the film's "I Want" song. After reviewing Ashman's lyrics, co-directors Ron Clements and John Musker suggested some rewrites, as Ashman had included terms that would be unfamiliar to someone who gets their "information [about the human world] from a seagull." Ashman complied, replacing some of his previous lyrics with more off-beat terminology.

While recording "Part of Your World", Jodi Benson requested that the studio's lights be dimmed to give her the feeling of being underwater. Ashman stood at Benson's side, giving her suggestions to benefit her performance. Benson admits to have borrowed a lot of her performance from Ashman's live renditions and demos of the song. When she heard the finished song, she was shocked to hear some of the less-perfect passes, wrong notes, and little parts within the song that were spoken that she recorded had made it into the final cut, but Menken and Ashman assured her it was exactly what they wanted- they wanted the recording to feel as real as possible.

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