“What up peeps,” Jimmie Allen posted to his Instagram on Nov. 25, a day before he and Noah Cyrus were set to sing their duet, “This Is Us,” at the 2020 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. Unfortunately, just like every other concert in 2020, this performance had to be canceled. “Wanted to check in here and let ya know that unfortunately, I won’t be able to perform at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade this year due to a minor family emergency,” wrote Jimmie. “I’m still looking forward to watching the Parade with the family like we always do. Hopefully, one year soon, I’ll be watching it from one of the floats. Happy Thanksgiving.”
— Jimmie Allen (@JimmieAllen) November 25, 2020
The story of “This Is Us” starts with Ash Bowers, Jimmie’s manager. Ash, according to Taste of Country, collaborates with Noah’s label, on occasion. Noah had a song that was in search of another voice, and through Jimmie’s manager, it ended up in his hands. Jimmie loved how the song fit his sonic mix of pop, country, and R&B, and how it could be viewed as being more than a love song. “I looked at it, not just a relationship, but friendships and stuff I’ve had,” he told Taste of Country. “That lyric, ‘You were just you and I was just me …’ We were kids, and we might have gotten in arguments or fights, but we were trying to figure out who we were. Through all that, we remained friends.”
It’s during that line that Jimmie and Noah come together. “Cause it was just you / And that was just me,” they sing on the chorus. “And that was just the way that it used to be / And we were just kids back then / Trying to figure out what it was / No, it wasn’t that bad / But could’ve been better / If only back then we had been together / But it was just you / And that was just me / Before we found love / Now, this is us.”
There’s always next year. Hopefully, by then, the COVID-19 pandemic will be under control, and Jimmie could make his Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade dream come true in front of the usual 3.5 million viewers who line the streets of Manhattan. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the parade ditched its usual 2.5-mile route and, instead, reconstructed the event “over the course of several days as a television-only event leading up to the live Thanksgiving Day broadcast that will feature the breadth of Macy’s signature elements,” per Macy’s.
This year’s event – like most events this year — was held without spectators. The parade also ran with a skeleton crew. The parade scaled back the number of performers and overall participants, roughly 88%. There were still balloons, but they glided around Herald’s Square attached to floats instead of being guided by dozens of handlers. Overall, it was a Thanksgiving Day Parade for the history books — one way or another.