Halle Bailey shows Disney princess realness, as she performs "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from The Lion King

It feels like the longest time ago since Halle Bailey was announced as Ariel in Disney's live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. And then 2020 happened. And then 2021 happened. The pandemic had shut down pretty much everything, one of those things being the shooting of The Little Mermaid. But once film shoots were able to pick up again, Disney went back to work and the film wrapped during the Summer.

Disney has been pretty quiet on not only everything concerning this movie, but there was little acknowledgement of their future Disney princess. Despite having Halle perform at the event, in part because she is part of The Little Mermaid, Whoopi Golberg's intro made zero mention of the fact that Halle is Ariel in the upcoming live-action remake of The Little Mermaid - which was clearly intentional. This would explain why despite it being fitting for Halle to perform a song from The Little Mermaid, that she didn't. Disney seem to be speaking nothing of the film until a teaser drops and marketing kicks off. So instead, Halle sang the Simba and Nala fuck ballad "Can You Feel This Good Pussy?" "Can You Feel the Love Tonight". And she just-

And just like that Halle showed the world why she's a perfect Disney princess.

This performance immaculate. I had to run it back 3, 7 times.

Even for Chloe x Halle fans, I'm sure hearing Halle sing like this was a surprise. Not completely unexpected. But still a surprise. We'd all expect Chloe to be able to step out and sing a song like this and sound great, because she's always sung in a way where we get a sense that she has range and power. But Halle never has. She possesses a far greater range, control and a level of power than I ever gave her credit. And she managed to sing the song in the way you'd expect for a Disney song, but still retain her own flairs and personal touches.

Halle's rendition of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" was stunning, and featured all of the feeling, heart and magic that the Nalayoncé and Childish Simbino version did not. I need Bob Chapek to put this performance on YouTube proper and release this rendition to streaming services.

I'm mad excited for Halle and The Little Mermaid, but also concerned for her. Because Disney's track record with these remakes has been awful. They're all so formulaic, with what ahs been an awful formula from the beginning. The common theme with Disney's live-action movie remakes is that they keep making changes as nods to social commentaries and doing it for the sake of doing it, without changing anything else. I get it that some of these original films have problematic moments and premises. But if you're going to inject social commentaries, then adjust other elements of the story so contextually they make sense and feel like natural beats of the story, as opposed to something which feels tacked on and can easily be cut with zero impact to anything else around it. The fact we have a Black Ariel alone is great. And there are definitely things in The Little Mermaid which should be changed. But I just know Disney are going to try and show woke points with what they add and it's just going to come off as nonsensical and clumsy as it did in Dumbo and Aladdin.

All this to say, that I can imagine that The Little Mermaid will get dragged, and I hope Halle doesn't get caught up in it. None of these Disney remakes have killed careers. And even in the wake of bad reviews, they still do money at the box office. And in all fairness, none of the remakes have been bad solely because of performances. Halle seems like a gem and one that I'm sure Disney will want to keep around. Because once Disney like you, they gon' stay booking you. Just look at Toby Gad, Lin Manuel Miranda, The Rock and Emily Blunt. Booked and busy at Disney. And I'm sure Halle will be too. Even if it's just to add some colour to the rolodex.

💿 Album review: Chloe x Halle's Ungodly Hour