I'll Make a Man Out of You

In the 1998 animated Disney movie Mulan, "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" is performed by the character Li Shang, a captain in the Chinese imperial army, in a scene where he trains a group of inexperienced recruits, including Mulan, who is passing herself off as a man and using the name Ping. As the valiant and muscular Li Shang leads the training, he quickly sees he has a Herculean task ahead. "How could I make a man out of you?" he asks as they struggle through his challenges. But of course, this ragtag group gets it together and becomes a powerful fighting force, led by Mulan, who impresses with her cunning and tenacity. Li Shang never has to make a man out of her because she's perfectly competent as a woman.

Donny Osmond was starring in the touring production of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat when he got the call from Mulan producer Pam Coats about performing this song. In a Songfacts interview with Osmond, he told the story: "I had two days off, I flew from Chicago to LA, go to the studio, lay my vocal down. They show me some pictures of Li Shang, and they said, 'This is the character you will be playing. It's the emotion that we want in the song.' I sang it a few times, and they said, 'You nailed it. This is perfect!' So I thought, Cool. I'm in a little Disney animated film. Little did I know it would be one of the classics."

Like the rest of the Mulan soundtrack, "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" was written by Matthew Wilder, Jerry Goldsmith and David Zippel. Wilder is best known for his '80s hit "Break My Stride."