Alessia Cara is hitting up the late night circuit to promote her new single, a cover of Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock,” and made a stop at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday night (Nov. 29) to discuss the holiday classic and, of course, to play a game with the host.
Cara joined Fallon in a game titled Musical Genre Challenge, which sees the pair going back and forth singing popular tracks and breathing new life into them with different genre stylings. Fallon kicked things off with BTS’ “Butter” sung in the style of a ’80s new wave track, while Cara delivered a folksy, ’60s inspired version of Doja Cat and SZA’s “Kiss Me More.” After Fallon gave the iconic Spider-Man theme song a Beatles twist (British Invasion was the genre), Cara was tasked with delivering a jazz and swing interpretation of Justin Bieber and The Kid LAROI’s “Stay,” the highlight of the game.
Later in the program for the Cara’s interview segment, she chatted with Fallon about why she chose to cover “Jingle Bell Rock” instead of another classic Christmas tune. “I tend to gravitate toward super melancholic songs and Christmas songs tend to be a little bit sad,” the singer said. “But this one felt like it was really jolly and happy and that’s kind of what we all need. But also the real reason, secretly, I wanted to do it is because I wanted to sing the line ‘Giddy up, jingle-horse’ because it makes me laugh.”
The Billboard Holiday 100, which recently returned for 2021, finds the original version of “Jingle Bell Rock” sitting pretty at No. 3. The 25-year-old released her third studio album, In The Meantime, back in September.
Watch Cara on Fallon below.
