--- title: Will Ferrell Belts 'I Will Always Love You' to USC Graduates description: Will Ferrell knows the only way to properly congratulate a graduating class is by singing a Whitney Houston classic canonical: https://time.com/4778049/will-ferrell-usc-commencement-song/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-12T21:33:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:43:37.835Z og:title: Watch Will Ferrell Belt 'I Will Always Love You' During a Commencement Speech og:description: These graduates have love forever og:url: https://time.com/4778049/will-ferrell-usc-commencement-song/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt415470fcb090cb90/6988cd2c196cf4456a04018b/will-ferrell-usc-song.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: will-ferrell-usc-song og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Will Ferrell Belt 'I Will Always Love You' During a Commencement Speech twitter:description: These graduates have love forever twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt415470fcb090cb90/6988cd2c196cf4456a04018b/will-ferrell-usc-song.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Will Ferrell Belt 'I Will Always Love You' During a Commencement Speech by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. May 12, 2017 9:33 PM UTC  YouTube by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. May 12, 2017 9:33 PM UTC [Will Ferrell](http://time.com/4760752/will-ferrell-george-bush-impression-samantha-bee/) knows the only way to properly congratulate a graduating class is by singing a Whitney Houston classic. After encouraging the University of Southern California class of 2017 to go after their dreams despite fears and roadblocks, Ferrell, this year’s [commencement speaker](http://time.com/4774574/betsy-devos-bethune-cookman-university-commencement-2017-speech-read/), swore he would always be with the graduates — in song. “If you do have a moment where you feel down, just think about the support you have from this great Trojan family. Imagine me — literally picture my face — singing this song, gently into your ear,” he said before belting out a solid rendition of “I Will Always Love You.” Watch Ferrell’s performance above, starting around the 23:56 mark. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4778049/will-ferrell-usc-commencement-song/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4778049/will-ferrell-usc-commencement-song/"},"headline":"Watch Will Ferrell Belt 'I Will Always Love You' During a Commencement Speech","datePublished":"2017-05-12T21:33:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:43:37.835Z","description":"These graduates have love forever","url":"https://time.com/4778049/will-ferrell-usc-commencement-song/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Education","celebrities","Will Ferrell","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt415470fcb090cb90/6988cd2c196cf4456a04018b/will-ferrell-usc-song.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt415470fcb090cb90/6988cd2c196cf4456a04018b/will-ferrell-usc-song.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"will-ferrell-usc-song","caption":"","creditText":"YouTube","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4778049/will-ferrell-usc-commencement-song/","name":"Watch Will Ferrell Belt 'I Will Always Love You' During a Commencement Speech"}}]}] ```