Entertainment Movies Halle Bailey Says 'Part of Your World' Was Her Favorite Song for Live-Action 'Little Mermaid' "That's my number one," Halle Bailey said of the song that Ariel sings as she dreams about the world above water By Nicholas Rice Nicholas Rice Nicholas Rice is a Senior Editor for PEOPLE Magazine. He began working with the brand as an Editorial Intern in early 2020, before later transitioning to a freelance role, and then staff positions soon after. Nicholas writes and edits anywhere between 7 to 9 stories per day on average for PEOPLE, spanning across each vertical the brand covers. People Editorial Guidelines Published on March 27, 2022 08:23PM EDT Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic For Halle Bailey, performing "Part of Your World" in the live-action The Little Mermaid was "of course" her favorite song to sing. The musician, who turns 22 on Sunday, appeared on the red carpet of the 94th annual Academy Awards alongside her older sister Chloë. (Together, the sisters make up the musical duo Chloe x Halle.) When asked by Brandon Maxwell about her "favorite song" to perform for the remake, which is scheduled to hit theaters next year, Bailey couldn't help but gush about the iconic staple from the animated film. "Of course, 'Part of Your World,'" she said with a laugh of the song that Ariel sings as she dreams about the world above water. "Yep, that's my number one." Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Leon Bennett/Getty; Walt Disney/Everett Lizzo Says She Had a 'Good' Audition to Play Ursula in Little Mermaid: 'You Can Ask Disney' Disney announced in July 2019 that Bailey would be taking on the role of Ariel. "After an extensive search, it was abundantly clear that Halle possesses that rare combination of spirit, heart, youth, innocence, and substance — plus a glorious singing voice — all intrinsic qualities necessary to play this iconic role," director Rob Marshall said in a statement at the time. Want to get the biggest stories from PEOPLE every weekday? Subscribe to our new podcast, PEOPLE Every Day, to get the essential celebrity, entertainment and human interest news stories Monday through Friday. Bailey announced the completion of filming in an Instagram post in September 2021, sharing a photo of herself sitting in the ocean at sunset. The forthcoming film also stars other big names in Hollywood, including Javier Bardem as King Triton, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, Melissa McCarthy as Ursula, Daveed Diggs as Sebastian and Awkwafina as Scuttle. RELATED VIDEO: Daveed Diggs on Playing Sebastian in the New 'Little Mermaid' Last month, Lin-Manuel Miranda revealed that the new songs featured in the live-action adaptation won't replace any of the classics. The 42-year-old actor, who is collaborating with composer Alan Menken on the film, opened up about the songs that will be featured during a conversation on Variety's Awards Circuit podcast. "Alan will tell you if he does not like something," Miranda said of Menken, 72. "He's a very like heart and opinion on sleeve guy. ... He's scoring it as well, along with the songs, just as he did with the original." Noting that he "won't see a rough cut for another month or a couple of months," Miranda said Menken's own excitement makes him excited to see the film. Lin-Manuel Miranda Teases New Original Songs for The Little Mermaid Live-Action Remake "We wrote three or four original tunes, replacing none of the ones you like. All of those are in," Miranda added to Variety of the classic songs, including "Under the Sea" and "Poor Unfortunate Souls." "There's no bigger Little Mermaid fan than me," he added. "... But we found a couple of opportunities for some other music that I can't wait to see. I'm in the dark as anyone else, honestly." Of the new songs, Miranda said that Bailey's Ariel will sing a track in the second half of the film when she loses her voice and becomes a human. "Rob found a creative way to hear from Ariel, even though she is sans voice for a little while. We wrote some music [for] her time on land. She experiences a lot of firsts, as someone with legs for the first time, so we got to lean into all of that musically," Miranda explained. The 2022 Oscars are airing Sunday from Hollywood's Dolby Theatre on ABC.