Beyoncé, queen of celebrities, made a surprise appearance at Disney's big celebrity singing party
ABC aired The Disney Family Singalong tonight, a deviously perfect little bit of branded marketing joy aimed like a guided missile at the hearts and minds of families enduring a tense and anxious era at the moment. Tapping a whole host of its back catalog of talent and friends of the family/all-powerful global megacorp—including Christina Aguilera, Erin Andrews, Bobby Bones, Michael Bublé, Kristin Chenoweth, Auliʻi Cravalho, Luke Evans, Jordan Fisher, Josh Gad, Derek Hough, Julianne Hough, Carrie Ann Inaba, Little Big Town, Kenny Ortega, Donny Osmond, and more—the special did exactly what it said on the tin: Gave families a chance to sing along to any number of their favorite Disney hits, while also reminding us all that Josh Gad was in that Beauty And The Beast remake we’ve all spent the last couple of years trying to forget.
All of which would have been all well and good, except damn if The Temple Of Mouse didn’t go and do itself one better in its efforts to pump pure televisual joy into America’s homes. As far as people who are welcome surprises—anywhere, really—it’s hard to beat certified Disney (lion) queen Beyoncé, and yet that’s exactly who viewers of the program got. She didn’t perform a full song, but she did spend just long enough on “When You Wish Upon A Star” to remind us all of the futility of even trying to sing along when when Beyoncé is in the (figurative) house.