"Man in the Mirror" is a song by Michael Jackson. It peaked at number one in the United States when released as a single in early 1988 off his seventh solo album, Bad. It is one of Jackson's most critically acclaimed songs and it was nominated for Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards. The song topped the Hot 100 for two weeks. It was only a moderate hit in the UK at the time of its release, peaking at number 21 and becoming the only single from Badnot to reach the UK Top 20 on first release. However, in 2009, following the news of Jackson's death, the song peaked at number two in the official UK Singles Chart, behind Cascada's "Evacuate the Dancefloor," having re-entered the chart at 11 the previous week.

The song was composed by Siedah Garrett (who can be heard singing in the background with Jackson) and Glen Ballard. Jackson added background vocals from Garrett, The Winans and the Andrae Crouch Choir, which gave the song its distinctive sound. The song is said to be one of his favorite songs.

Garrett had the idea for the song when she was driving to the recording session for "I Just Can't Stop Loving You". On her way, she saw a face in the mirror of her car, and this gave her the idea to write a song titled "Man In The Mirror" as an addition to Jackson's upcoming album.

Arranged with a Gospel choir, a year after David Bowie used the same device for "Underground", from the fantasy film Labyrinth, other popular artists at the time who had tracks featuring gospel choirs include Debbie Gibson and Guns N' Roses. Jackson would utilize a gospel choir again several years later on his hit "Will You Be There". Siedah Garrett also sang on Jackson's "I Just Can't Stop Loving You".

Jackson performed a live, extended version of the song at the 1988 Grammy Awards. He also performed the song as the ending of the concert during the Bad World Tour's second leg, and regularly during the Dangerous World Tour. On July 16, 1996, Jackson also performed "Man in the Mirror" at the Royal Concert Brunei for the last time prior to the United We Stand benefit concert.

There are two music videos for the song. One of the videos is a notable departure from Jackson's other videos mainly because Jackson himself does not appear in the video (aside from a brief clip toward the end of the video in which he can be seen donning a red jacket and standing in a large crowd). Instead, it featured a montage of footage from various major news events such as nuclear explosions, the John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy shootings, the Iranian hostage crisis, Live Aid, Farm Aid, and notable people including Martin Luther King, Lech Wałęsa, Mother Teresa, Desmond Tutu, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Mahatma Gandhi, Anwar El Sadat, Menachem Begin, Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Rosa Parks, Ronald Reagan, Pieter Willem Botha, and Adolf Hitler.. An alternate video was included at the beginning of his film Moonwalker featuring a live performance of the song during the Bad World Tour

The song was quoted by Jermaine Jackson during Celebrity Big Brother 2007, while confronting several housemates who had been bullying an Indian housemate, the Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty. The song was played into the house the following morning as an alarm.

The song is played in the key of G Major at a tempo of 100bpm. The vocal range is Ab3-C6.

An instrumental version was played at the end of Jackson's memorial service, while his coffin was being carried out. A spotlight shone on an empty space behind a microphone, signalling Michael's absence. The song is also featured as the final number in Michael Jackson's This Is It.

Richard Corliss, writing in Time Magazine in 2009, described the song as "toweringly indulgent but well-meaning", praising it as one of Jackson's most powerful vocal performances and "accessible social statements" as well as noting its "fleeting glimpse of autobiography."

"Man In The Mirror" was the fourth consecutive number-one single for Jackson's Badin the United States. The single debuted on the BillboardHot 100 at #48 on February 6, 1988, and reached #1 by its eighth week on the chart, on March 26, 1988, where it remained for two weeks.

It originally charted at #21 in the United Kingdom on 1988. However, following Jackson's death on June 25, 2009, "Man in the Mirror" re-entered the UK Singles Chart at number 11, and the following week the song peaked at #2, held off by Cascada. The chart had also contained over 12 Michael Jackson songs in the Top 40. This song had been at top 100 for 15 consecutive weeks in this chart.

In Australia the song originally charted at 39. After the singer's death the song re-entered the chart and peaked at number 8, much higher than its original release.

The single sleeve incorrectly lists the running time for the single mix and instrumental as 4:55.

In 1990, an instrumental version for acoustic guitar was recorded by Tuck Andress.

Siedah Garett recorded a more stripped down acoustic version of the song for her 2004 album Siedah.

The song is sampled by Brooklyn MC Papoose during the summer of 2006 on his "Gonna Make a Change." The song describes his rough upbringing and his struggles. Later the song was freestyled by rapper Rhymefest with Michael singing the chorus & singing part of his second verse.

The song has been performed on The X Factorby contestant Diana Vickers in 2008, after which the song re-entered the UK singles charts the week after at 43, and by Danyl Johnson in 2009. American Idol Season 8 winner Kris Allen sang the song during the semi-finals. With this performance, he advanced to the finals. It has also been performed on Australian Idol (season 5) by winner Natalie Gauci.

In 2006 the song was covered by Redd Angel

In 2009, following Jackson's death, rock group U2 started adding a portion of the song at the end of their song 'Angel of Harlem' during their live concerts.

Following Jackson's death, The Fray performed the chorus at 2 live concerts, during "Never Say Never" the day he died, and during "Look After You" exactly the month after.

Whitney Houston performed the song during her concert at the Olimpiyskiy on the I Look to You Tour.

The song was the Grand Finale at the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Concert.

It was also covered by Eddie Razaz on Idol 2009 (Sweden), and released on the Swedish Idol Compilation 2009.

Singer/Song Writer Amy Studt covered this song in her 2009 acoustic tour.

On the deluxe version of James Morrison's second album Songs for You, Truths For Me there is a version of this song