On Friday December 13th, I had the chance to attend IHeartRadio’s Jingle Ball at Madison Square Garden in New York. The great thing about attending an event like this is that it feels like you are at multiple different concerts. Each musician sings around 3-4 songs and is on stage for about twenty-twenty five minutes.
Performers included Katy Perry, Gracie Abrams, Madison Beer, Tate McRae, Benson Boone, and others. I really enjoyed all of the performances, as each of them added their own little twists to their sets. In 2024, I saw Gracie Abrams, Madison Beer, and Tate McRae in concert, so seeing them again was really enjoyable, especially all in the same night. The most anticipated performance was definitely Gracie Abrams, at least for me. When they announced she was about to come out, the crowds jumped up and were immediately ready to scream along to all of her songs. She just came off of opening up for the Eras Tour for Taylor Swift, and since the Eras Tour ended on December 8th, she was able to perform at this event. Gracie sang 5 of her most popular songs, including, “Risk,” “I Love You, I’m Sorry,” “Let It Happen,” “That’s So True,” and “Close To You.” I really love all of these songs, so hearing them live again for the second time in 2024, was very exciting. Two other performances I really enjoyed were:
Benson Boone, who I have wanted to see in concert for a long time, performed popular songs including “Slow It Down,” “Cry,” “Beautiful Things,” and an unreleased song “Young American Heart.” His performance was really good as he stands on his piano and then does a flip off of it, which was really cool. His song “Beautiful Things” got really popular on tiktok and that is where I knew it from. From that, I have learned more about him as an artist, and it was really enjoyable to see him perform at the Jingle Ball.
Tate McRae, another highly anticipated singer, did something a little different than the other musicians. Tate decided to open up her set by performing the song “Jingle Bell Rock” by Brenda Lee, and doing the famous “Mean Girls” dance along with her dancers. Other popular songs that she sang included “Run For The Hills,” “2 Hands,” “Greedy,” “You Broke Me First,” and “It’s Ok, I’m Ok.” I asked JCHS student, Bella Gencarelli, “If you were to have gone to the Jingle Ball, who would you have wanted to see most?”
Bella stated, “If I went to the 2024’s Jingle Ball, I would have definitely wanted to see Tate McRae. I love all of her music and saw her in concert in the summer, and her performance was amazing.” I totally agree with that because when I saw her over the summer, it truly was a very exciting concert.
Overall, I would say that my Jingle Ball experience was a 9 out of 10. As fun as it was, there were some singers that I don’t really listen to, which was fine, but those parts of the show tended to be a little more boring than when watching the performers I really love. I most enjoyed being around all of the other people who were there, which made the experience more fun. Singing along to songs that other people love as well is a really nice moment, because you can hear the excitement that is coming from everyone around you.
