We gotta hand it to Anna Kendrick — we’ve never heard someone cover Journey’s iconic “Don’t Stop Believin'” like this before!
The Another Simple Favor star’s April 28 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon coincided with the show’s latest creation: a segment called “Song Scramble.” The premise is simple enough, but the pressure of execution definitely caused Kendrick to squirm in her seat beforehand.
“We’re gonna take turns hitting this button, which activates our ‘Song Scrambler,'” Jimmy Fallon explained. “It’ll land on two totally different songs, and it’s up to us to sing the lyrics of one song over the melody of the other, okay? It’s gonna get tricky…”
When Fallon asked if she was ready, an apprehensive Kendrick was refreshingly (and hilariously) honest.
“I wish I was dead,” she joked with a smile. “It’s gonna be great.”
And that’s when Kendrick reminded us that the Pitch Perfect actress has got pipes.
Anna Kendrick sings “Don’t Stop Believin’ (That Baby’s Got Back)” on The Tonight Show
After the duo warmed up with combinations like “the lyrics of ‘I’m Too Sexy’ sang over the melody of ‘Espresso,” and Hanson’s “‘MMMBop” sang over Benson Boone‘s ‘Beautiful Things,” Kendrick’s Broadway roots started to shine.
For Kendrick’s final performance, she was instructed to belt the well-known lyrics of the Sir Mix-a-Lot classic “Baby Got Back” set to the tune of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” — and she did not disappoint. Watch her unreal performance above.
Despite being put on the spot, Kendrick showed off her world-class vocals as she sang the alternate-lyric “Don’t Stop Believin,'” absolutely going for it during the final “You get sprung” line from the rap classic — she hit that high note beautifully.
Anna Kendrick raved about visiting The Traitors castle
Kendrick is a self-described “superfan” of The Traitors. In addition to attending the Traitors Experience Activation in Los Angeles, she told Fallon about getting to travel to the actual Traitors castle in Scotland. She described the trip on Instagram as “the best, and dorkiest trip of my life.”
“We went all around Scotland and then we got to go to the Traitors castle — and, like, we played a round of The Traitors,” Kendrick shared — complete with a tap on the shoulder from Alan Cumming that Kendrick did NOT want.
“So, I suspected we were going to play a round of The Traitors, so I told the people that put it together — I was like, “Please don’t pick me to be a Traitor! I’m too sweaty and nervous, and I couldn’t. Please just let me be a Faithful.”
“But then, as you saw, Alan Cumming shows up as a total surprise. So, then they do the whole thing where we put the blindfolds on, and Alan Cumming is gonna —”
“He goes around the table to tap you on the shoulder?!” Fallon asked in envy.
“Yes! And every time, I can hear him going around me with the blindfold on. I start going, ‘No! No. No, no, no, no, no, no,'” Kendrick says, demonstrating her artful dodges. “And when we take the blindfolds off, someone’s like, ‘I heard a lot of movement over here whenever Alan was…’ And I was like, ‘No, no, no. I was moving away! Away! I’m a Faithful. I was moving away from the tap.”
Kendrick said everyone quickly gathered that she’d be “so bad at this game,” — but she did figure out who one of the Traitors was, so she remains a dream contestant in our book.
Watch Anna Kendrick’s Tonight Show interview below.