“I’ve always been independent, but I’ve learned to stand on my own two feet and make decisions on my own,” declares Jordin Sparks, so it makes perfect sense that she was drawn to the song “The World I Knew,” which will appear in the new Disney documentary, African Cats. When producer Ryan Tedder (whom she worked with on “Battlefield”) played it for her, says Sparks: “I knew I could bring emotion to the song.  It’s about strength. I loved what it was saying: ‘I don’t know where this road is going to lead me but I know with you, it’s going to be OK.’  When you have someone by your side you can pretty much make it through anything.”

The video, which premieres today, was shot on a soundstage in Burbank, Calif., but thanks to blue screen effects, “it will look like I’m walking through the Savannah at night and standing on a rock at sunrise, like in The Lion King,” says Sparks.

She was enthralled by the storyline of African Cats, a Disney documentary due out April 22 that follows a pride of lions and a cheetah and her cubs. “You fall in love with them as you’re watching their struggles.  It’s very relatable,” says Sparks, who realized as she was watching the fiercely protective mother cats, “My mom would totally do that for me. When it comes to me and my brother, she will do whatever it takes.”

African Cats is in theaters Friday, April 22.  The video to "The World I Knew" will be available today (April 7). 

(Photo:  Mike Moore/Getty Images)