Camila Cabello is bringing a little sabor to the White House this holiday season…
The 24-year-old half-Mexican Cuban-born singer joined a star-studded list of performers for PBS‘ In Performance at The White House: Spirit of the Season on Tuesday — and brought along a full mariachi group for her rendition of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”
Julia Garner and Jill Biden introduced for her performance from the Grand Foyer as Cabello rocked an all-red jumpsuit and matching gloves.
“Such an incredible honor to perform again at the white house,” Cabello tweeted with a clip for her performance of the Bing Crosby 1943 classic. “Wishing you all a wonderful holiday with your loved ones.”
Among the other performers were Eric Church, Jonas Brothers, Pentatonix, Billy Porter, along with Andrea Bocelli and his children Matteo and Virginia.
This isn’t the first time Cabello has visited the White House. During her time in Fifth Harmony, the group performed “All I Want for Christmas” for Barack Obama‘s National Tree Lighting in 2016, and also sang “Happy Birthday” to Michelle Obama‘s Let’s Move campaign during the White House Easter Egg Roll in 2015.
Cabello previously performed the song (alongside a mariachi) during NBC‘s Michael Bublé’s Christmas in the City earlier this month.
“I wanted to pay tribute to my Mexican heritage with this Christmas cover of I’ll be home for Christmas,” she wrote on Instagram about the tribute. “Luis [Miguel] did it first and in Spanish, but I wanted to bring it to an audience that normally doesn’t get to hear the beauty of Mariachi music.”
In Spanish, she added: “Much love to Mexico and to the beautiful music of my country. Merry Christmas! I hope you enjoy this cover that’s now available on Amazon Music.”
Cabello first introduced a mariachi to her music during Latinx Heritage Month for her NPR Tiny Desk performance, when she performed a track called “La Buena Vida.”
“I’m gonna sing a song called ‘La Buena Vida’ which is part of my upcoming album Familia and this is one of my favorite songs on the album so thanks for having me and I hope you guys enjoy it, let’s get it,” she said as she was joined by the band.
https://twitter.com/Camila_Cabello/status/1473675680424542217
Earlier this month, during a conversation with Kid Cudi, Anderson .Paak and the Sparks Brothers for The Hollywood Reporter‘s Songwriter Roundtable, the Fifth Harmony alum opened up about how writing a song for her Cinderella film helped her with her mental health.
“I don’t think I know how to write in any way that isn’t personal to me,” she said. “When I was working on ‘Million to One‘ for Cinderella, to be totally honest, I was going through a really hard time with my mental health.”
“It was just a period of a lot of anxiety and sadness for me, and that song had me feeling like, ‘I can overcome this. I know that I can make my life better.’ I feel like I channeled my personal journey into the one of the character. The character was super confident — everybody was telling her no, but she knew,” Cabello added.