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Halle Bailey's Gorgeous, Bluesy Cover of This Etta James Classic Will Astound You
The co-host of NBC's A Motown Christmas performed the song live during an intimate sold-out show.
Whether she’s nailing the impossibly high notes in a Mariah Carey song or singing “Part of Your World” as Ariel in The Little Mermaid, it seems there’s no song Halle Bailey can’t absolutely crush.
In fact, the co-host of NBC's upcoming holiday special, A Motown Christmas, recently sang a classic Etta James song, and her cover will instantly give you chills.
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Halle Bailey beautifully sings Etta James’ song “Fool That I Am”
Bailey showed off her incredible vocal range while covering Etta James' song "Fool That I Am" during an intimate show in Los Angeles in November 2024. In a video shared on TikTok, you can hear Bailey effortlessly sing the following lyrics: “Fool that I am / For hoping you'd understand / And thinking you / Would listen, too / And, oh, the things I had planned.”
Bailey performed the gorgeous cover during her first residency at The Sun Rose in West Hollywood; she also played many of her own songs live for the first time. Packed audiences at the both sold-out shows on November 14 and November 21 were lucky enough to hear her sing “Fool That I Am,” a song Bailey said is one of her favorites.
“I have so many jazz inspirations that I love,” Bailey said at the beginning of her show in a video shared on YouTube. “So I wanted to start off the show with one of my favorite songs by Miss Etta James.”
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Etta James song “Fool That I Am” is a bluesy love ballad
Released in 1961 on James’ second studio album, Second Time Around, “Fool That I Am” is a bluesy song about a woman feeling foolish for loving a man who didn’t feel the same, and leaving him even though she still cares.
In the first verse, James sings: “Fool that I am / For falling in love with you / And a, fool that I am / For thinking you loved me, too.” At the end of the song, James says goodbye to her “darling,” even though, as she sings, “I still care.”
“Fool That I Am” is just one of many hit songs released by James during her legendary career. Her classic love ballad “At Last” is perhaps her most well-known song, while others like “All I Could Do Was Cry” and “Tell Mama” remained at the top of the Billboard charts for several weeks.
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James released her last album, The Dreamer, in November 2011 and passed away months later in January 2012 at the age of 73.
You can hear Halle Bailey sing more classics on NBC’s A Motown Christmas
Alongside Smokey Robinson, Bailey is hosting NBC’s two-hour holiday special, A Motown Christmas. The Little Mermaid star is set to perform a variety of songs as a tribute to Diana Ross and the Supremes. Throughout the special, which features an 11-piece live band, viewers can also expect performances from Motown legends including Gladys Knight, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, and the Temptations. Other performances include Ashanti, Andra Day, BeBe Winans, Jamie Foxx, JoJo, October London, mgk, Pentatonix, Jordin Sparks, and the cast of the Broadway show MJ The Musical.
Watch A Motown Christmas on Wednesday, December 11 at 9/8c on NBC and the next day on Peacock. An encore presentation of the special will also air on December 17 on NBC.
