Three generations of Black Disney royalty shared one stage Thursday, and for many Black households, it felt like something worth celebrating.
A trio of iconic Black Disney princesses united for the first time during “Disney Princess: The Ultimate Concert Celebration,” part of D23 Day at Disney California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California. The special, which will stream on Disney+, wasn’t just a nostalgia trip for fans online. It was a visual reminder of how far Disney’s princess legacy has traveled, and of the women who cleared the runway for each other, one crown at a time.
Studies on children’s media consistently link positive representation to stronger self-esteem, racial identity, and a sense of belonging among Black children, while its absence has been shown to do the opposite. Here is a look at the Black women who have carried that legacy.
Brandy
Cinderalla
In 1997, at 18 years old, Brandy became the first Black actress to play Cinderella on television, opposite an Asian prince, a Black queen, and a royal court that looked more like the real world than a storybook. Producers pushed for a colorblind approach specifically to reflect how the country had changed. Nearly three decades later, Brandy reprised the role during the D23 concert, performing “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes” before joining Lea Salonga for “A Whole New World.”
Anika Noni Rose
Tiana, The Princess and the Frog
Rose voiced Tiana in 2009’s “The Princess and the Frog,” giving Disney its first Black animated princess. Tiana was a hardworking, New Orleans-born dreamer whose story centered Black culture and ambition in a way Disney animation hadn’t done before. Rose has said sharing Thursday’s stage with Brandy and Bailey was an emotional experience for her. Sixteen years after Tiana’s debut, she’s still the character many Black women point to as the first time they saw themselves in a Disney film.
Halle Bailey
The Little Mermaid
Bailey stepped into the role of Ariel for Disney’s 2023 live-action “The Little Mermaid” and absorbed some of the ugliest backlash any Disney casting decision has generated, months before the film even opened. She sang anyway. Her rendition of “Part of Your World” became a cultural moment of its own, and at Thursday’s concert, she reunited with original animated Ariel voice Jodi Benson for a joint performance of the same song, a full-circle pairing nearly 35 years in the making.
**HONORABLE MENTION
Whitney Houston
The Fairy Godmother
Before Brandy could become Cinderella, Whitney Houston had to make it happen. Houston starred as the Fairy Godmother in ABC’s 1997 “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” but her fingerprints were on every part of the production. She and her company, BrownHouse Productions, served as executive producers, and it was Houston who handpicked Brandy for the title role. The special drew more than 60 million viewers and assembled one of the most diverse casts a fairy tale had ever seen.