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When Disney comes calling, Jodi Benson answers it every time. Benson is the signature voice of Princess Ariel in the 1989 classic Little Mermaid, a beloved film that is often regarded as the film that kicked off their renaissance period, followed by Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Night Before Christmas, The Lion King, and Pocahontas. Benson trusts that any job she gets called for will be a creative and one worth doing. 

Benson recently appeared at GalaxyCon 2025 in Oklahoma City along with Christopher Daniel Barnes (Prince Eric) to celebrate the Disney classic and answer fan Q&A. The co-stars were asked what each does to prepare to keep grounded and centered for a performance or a recording session. While formulating her answer around preparing her instrument (her voice) with hydration and breathing, Benson wandered into a story about a recent recording session. 

“I was recording a song last week for a secret Disney project that I can’t talk about,” Benson revealed. “I found myself being nervous that day. It was a whole new team that I’ve never worked with before. They didn’t give me much time to record the song.” 

Benson explained that normally a full song is approximately three minutes and 45 seconds. That includes a refrain, two verses, a bridge, another refrain and an ending. The amount of time usually required to capture everything needed is about four hours, which includes breaks. 

“I had 30 minutes,” Benson revealed.

“So when I saw that, I was a little stressed out. So I told them, you’re asking a lot, so if we don’t finish it in 30 minutes, we are going to do our best. And we might have to come back and revisit it. Even talking about it my heart is racing.”

Benson went on to explain that the human voice is not a perfect instrument.

“No vocalist is ever perfect, sorry to tell you that. There’s always a wrong note or wrong something because it’s a human voice. It’s not an electric instrument that you can count on to play the right note. I put a lot of stress on myself.”

Now the speculation begins, what secret Disney project could Benson be talking about? She has appeared in Ariel in some creative ways including video games like The Little Mermaid and Kingdom Hearts, she appeared in Enchanted and is the voice actor for Barbie in Disney Pixar’s Toy Story franchise. Toy Story 5 is set to release in 2026. That would be the odds on favorite along with an original song for Kingdom Hearts 4. 

And then there’s this little theory. Maybe there’s a crossover between Moana and Little Mermaid in Moana 3? It’s a guess because a third Moana film isn’t official, but we all know that the ending of Moana 2 suggests that another installment is coming. The songs in Moana 2 lacked the magic missing from not having Lin-Manuel Miranda write the songs in the sequel. It would certainly be a fun way to have two of Disney’s princesses together.

What do you think it is? Whatever the secret project is, we’re sure that Benson gave it her best and it will turn out great.

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