"Heal the World" was written and composed by Michael Jackson for his eighth studio album, Dangerous (1991), which he produced with Bruce Swedien. Released as the album's sixth single on November 9, 1992, by Epic Records, with "She Drives Me Wild" on the B-side, it is in A major, modulating to B major and C-sharp major, at a tempo of 80 BPM.
In the UK it reached number two in December 1992, behind Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You", and it peaked at number 27 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The music video, directed by Joe Pytka, features children in countries affected by unrest. The song was performed at the Super Bowl XXVII halftime show and sung at the 2009 Staples Center memorial service. Critics were divided: Billboard's Larry Flick called it an "oh-so-sweet call for peace and love", while Rolling Stone's Alan Light called it a Hallmark-card knockoff of "We Are the World". Its message of betterment for all became a centrepiece of the Dangerous World Tour.
