"Poor Unfortunate Souls" is a song from theWalt Disney Picturesanimated filmThe Little Mermaid. Written byHoward Ashman andAlan Menken and performed byPat Carroll, "Poor Unfortunate Souls" is sung toAriel byUrsula the Sea Witch, the film's villainess. In a style that combinesBroadway theatre withBurlesque, Ursula uses the song to seduce Ariel intotrading her voice for the chance to temporarily become human.

Howard Ashman recorded a version of the song with himself in the role of Ursula, to send to Carroll to convince her to take the role, which it did. This version was released in the four-CD setThe Music Behind the Magic. Carroll admits that she borrowed some of the inflections she used in the song from Ashman's performance, and that he had been delighted she had done so.

Carroll's original rendition of "Poor Unfortunate Souls" was included on a 1996 compilation CD of songs performed by or about various Disney villains calledRascal Songs. The CD was released as part of a three-disc Disney song series as aMcDonald's promotional item.

Four versions of a reprise have been written and produced for Ursula to sing in various incarnations of the Disney story.

A short reprise of this song is featured later in the original Disney movie being sung by Vanessa (Jodi Benson). This reprise is sometimes referred to as "Vanessa's Song". It was included inThe Legacy Collection: The Little Mermaid, released as a two-disc album on November 24, 2014, to coincide with the film's twenty-fifth anniversary.^[1]

A new reprise was featured in the Little Mermaid Live! show produced in November 2019 byQueen Latifah.

Jonas Brothers

TheJonas Brothers covered "Poor Unfortunate Souls" for theLittle Mermaid two-disc special edition of the soundtrack, released on October 3, 2006, to correspond with the two-discThe Little Mermaid Platinum Edition DVD. The Special Edition Soundtrack includes a music video for the song, where the boys are singing around the Boring Hills Country Club.

Other appearances

The song is also featured onDisney's On the Record along with "Part of Your World", "Under the Sea" and "Kiss the Girl" of songs fromThe Little Mermaid.

A portion of the song is performed twice in theWalt Disney WorldMagic KingdomHalloween-themed fireworks showHalloWishes duringMickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and inDisneyland's similarly themedHalloween Screams duringMickey's Halloween Party. Also at Walt Disney World, an instrumental snippet of the song is featured in theElectrical Water Pageant to accompany the appearance of a red octopus.

Other performers'

• Actor and singerTituss Burgess performed the song as part of his set at the 2017Vulture Festival.^[2]
• American singerMichelle Visage performed aparody version, entitled "Poor Unfortunate Queens", duringRuPaul's Drag Race Battle of the Seasons Tour.^[3]
• A pop rendition is sung by the American actress and singerChina Anne McClain, in theDisney Channel Original Movie,Descendants 2.
• The song is featured in the 2023live-action adaptation of the film, performed byMelissa McCarthy as Ursula.^[4] For this new adaptation some of the song's lyrics were updated, with Menken explaining that it was because of "…lines that might make young girls somehow feel that they shouldn't speak out of turn, even though Ursula is clearly manipulating Ariel to give up her voice."^[5]

• Disney Sing-Along onYouTube (on Disney's official channel)

• 1989 songs
• 2006 singles
• Jonas Brothers songs
• Deal with the Devil
• Songs from The Little Mermaid (franchise)
• Songs with music by Alan Menken
• Disney Renaissance songs
• Songs with lyrics by Howard Ashman
• Songs about witches
• Song recordings produced by Alan Menken
• Song recordings produced by Howard Ashman
• Songs written for animated films

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles with hAudio microformats
• Certification Table Entry usages for United States
• Pages using certification Table Entry with streaming figures
• Pages using certification Table Entry with streaming footnote