Katharine McPhee and David Foster ushered in the holiday season with a festive performance at the 2023 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
McPhee, 39, and Foster, 74, sang “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” at the 97th annual event on Thursday, November 23. The couple appeared on Hallmark Channel’s Heartwarming Holiday Countdown float, which featured a 3-D Christmas calendar inspired by the network’s Countdown to Christmas tradition and held special surprises behind every date.
Other performers on the parade’s lineup included Cher, Jon Batiste, Brandy, Jessie James Decker and Ashley Park.
Foster and McPhee — who tied the knot in June 2019 and welcomed son Rennie in February 2021 — released their holiday album, Christmas Songs, in 2022. The full version with additional songs came out in October.
Katharine McPhee & Hallmark Channel is a duo I love! #MacysThanksgivingDayParade pic.twitter.com/iwPwt9kCM5
— Queen Camilla (@Camilla_33) November 23, 2023
McPhee previously joked that she “guilted” Foster into recording the collaboration. “I said something like, ‘It’s really crazy I’m married to the greatest producer, basically of our lifetime, and I’ve only had you record me on a few songs,’” she recalled to People in October 2022. “Then he said, ‘OK, well, why don’t we just do a Christmas album?’”
What started out as a fun side project for the pair ultimately became a full-scale release. “We thought we would just put a couple songs out on Spotify, and then we did this seven-song EP situation and our co-manager started sending it around to a couple labels,” McPhee explained. “Before we knew it, we had a whole Christmas plan of shows and promotion.”
Foster, meanwhile, described the recording process as “easy because she sings so amazing.”
“I got to make the tracks and do things the way I wanted to, then I’d have her come in and plug her vocal in,” he continued. “It was really fun. There were a couple of songs we were talking about that we didn’t know whether she could handle or not, but she handled them like a pro.”
While many stars have tried to write original Christmas songs over the years, Foster emphasized the importance of sticking to the classics. “With all of the Christmas albums I’ve done, I’ve learned that people just don’t want to hear new Christmas songs — I mean, other than Mariah [Carey],” he said.
Foster and McPhee were on the same page about their love of traditional holiday tunes. “I wrote a Christmas song called ‘Grown-Up Christmas List’ which we included on this album. It’s not a classic, but it’s been covered by a lot of people,” he added. “We love the classics — like ‘Frosty the Snowman’ and ‘Winter Wonderland’ — because they’re so cleverly done.”
