Halle Bailey Performs Magical ‘Part of Your World’ During ‘American Idol’

Halle Bailey performed “Part of Your World” live during American Idol’s Disney Night on Sunday. Dressed in a shimmery blue gown with a watery Magic Kingdom’s castle behind her, Bailey channeled Ariel’s yearning to be human and the underwater magic of The Little Mermaid.

Her rendition serves as the lead single from the live action remake of the classic The Little Mermaid. The song finds mermaid Ariel dreaming about what it’s like to be a human. “What would I give if could live out of these waters?,” she wonders. “What would I pay to spend a day warm on the sand?”

The soundtrack for the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid will feature new recordings of many of the songs Disney music vets Alan Menken and Howard Ashman wrote for the 1989 animated film. Menken also partnered with Lin-Manuel Miranda to write four new songs for the movie (with three appearing in the movie; the fourth will arrive as a DVD extra).

The Rob Marshall-directed The Little Mermaid arrives in theaters next week, on May 26. Bailey stars as Ariel, while the cast also features Jonah Hauer-King as Eric, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Javier Bardem as King Triton, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian, Awkwafina as Scuttle, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, and Noma Dumezweni as Queen Selina (Eric’s mother, and a new character for the film).