Ariana Grande sang “O Christmas Tree” with Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller on the November 8 edition of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The three were promoting Focker-in-Law, and their performance was part of a Sunday broadcast marking the arrival of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. Grande led the melody while her two co-stars supplied much of the comedy.
Ariana Grande had Robert De Niro on one side of a Christmas carol and Ben Stiller in the mix when the Focker-in-Law cast visited Jimmy Fallon. The three sang “O Christmas Tree” on the November 8 Sunday edition of The Tonight Show. The television special coincided with the arrival of New York’s Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, which gave the guests a reason to do something with the holiday standard between conversations about the film.
Grande carried the melody. She leaned into the upper notes and drew applause, while Stiller and De Niro approached the song with the loose timing of actors taking part in a comedy bit. It works partly because the tune is so familiar. The audience can hear what is happening when one singer holds a phrase and the others leave it space or come in around her.
“O Christmas Tree” is the English-language form of “O Tannenbaum.” The melody has travelled widely enough to make it recognisable even in a brief television arrangement. Here, the words were familiar material for a group whose main reason for sharing a stage was a film. Ariana Grande had room to use the technique people expect from her, while the actors could play off her delivery without turning the moment into a formal ensemble performance.
The broadcast also gave the three time to speak with Fallon. Their appearance came ahead of Focker-in-Law, scheduled to open in cinemas on November 25. Grande plays Olivia Jones, the partner of Henry Focker, played by Skyler Gisondo. De Niro and Stiller return to a film series whose comedy has long depended on the strain of introducing people to one another and seeing what happens once they are in the same room.
The casting gives the visit a different flavour from an appearance promoting a record. Ariana Grande has spent recent years moving between film work and music, and the Tonight Show segment put the two in the same few minutes. The film gave the three guests something to talk about. The carol gave viewers a chance to hear their shared timing before seeing them together on screen.
This was the second of four special Sunday editions planned by The Tonight Show for the period. The Christmas tree provided a timely subject for the November 8 broadcast, ahead of the film’s Thanksgiving-week release. The carol could be performed in the studio with little setup for the audience, who already knew how the tune was supposed to go and could enjoy the different ways the guests got there.
The short clip is available through The Tonight Show. It catches the moment when Grande turns a familiar line into a proper vocal phrase and the room responds. Stiller and De Niro can then return to the joke with the tune still in place.
