Brandy is singing the new ‘A Different World’ theme, but its story starts with Dawnn Lewis
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Nearly 40 years ago, Lewis co-wrote the iconic song but was ultimately told she couldn’t perform it herself.
“It’s a different world (Ooh, ooh) Than where you come from.” For generations of Black television lovers, those lyrics are muscle memory. And now Brandy joins the lineage of artists who’ve given the “A Different World” theme its voice as the show heads to Netflix for a reboot. But behind those familiar bars sits a decades-long story of legends, and one songwriter who never fully got her moment.
Ahead of the show’s premiere in 1987, actress and singer-songwriter Dawnn Lewis was hired to join the show’s cast as Jaleesa. However, knowing her musical background, she recalls the show’s musical director at the time reaching out to her to write the theme song.
“So, I wrote the theme song, booked the acting gig, and they had no idea they’d hired the same person until after they had hired me for both jobs,” she recounted in an interview with Entertainment Tonight.
Though her name remains in the credits as co-writer, Lewis never got to perform the song on the show. Once the casting and musical director realized they had hired the same person, production said it would be “a little too much attention” on her for the show which was initially positioned as a spinoff of the “Cosby Show” following Lisa Bonet’s character Denise Huxtable’s collegiate journey.
“At that point it was decided that would not be appropriate to have me sing the song cause it wasn’t my show. It was Lisa Bonet’s show and they thought it would have put too much attention on me as the singer, composer, and co-star of the show. So they started looking for other options,” Lewis told Vulture.
The actress then embarked on a journey to help decide who would sing the theme song for the show’s debut season. While they ultimately landed on Phoebe Snow, she recalls Al Green being one of the many contenders.
“They had Al Green come in first to record it,” she explained reflecting on the unreleased version. “So I’m in the recording studio teaching Al Green my song. “‘No, no, no Al, it goes like this.’”
For its second season, with the help of Debbie Allen who joined the team as lead producer and director, the show was able to get Aretha Franklin (a.k.a the Queen of Soul) to sing the show’s opening track.
“Their thought for the second season was, let’s get a different singer. So they got Aretha Franklin thinking that for the next season they would have somebody else do it,” Lewis continued. “Well, once Aretha recorded it, it was like ‘You know what, we’re not having anybody else do this song.’ It was part of what was supposed to be the natural progression of the show and the music identified with the show, but everyone had to admit that once she sang it, it didn’t need to be sung again.”
And while Franklin’s version stuck with the show for four seasons, for its sixth and final season the show tapped Boyz II Men and Terrence Forsythe to sing their rendition of the iconic track. Fast forward nearly 40 years, Brandy is stepping in to sing the latest rendition of the show’s theme song, as Lewis, Allen, Jasmine Guy, Kadeem Hardison and Glynn Turman reunite to welcome the next generation of Hillman students.
“The fact that here it is 38 years later, and the show is still on television, We’re still talking about it. It’s still changing lives. They use the theme song as an anthem. People of all ages, all cultures,” Lewis concluded. “It’s just amazing.”
The “A Different World” reboot premieres on Netflix on September 24, 2026.