NBC's New Year's Eve 2019: Every Musical Guest | Screen Rant
NBC’s annual end-of-year celebrations wouldn’t be the same without its musical guests, and here’s every musician that performed during NBC’s New Year’s Eve 2019. There isn’t a more iconic New Year’s Eve celebration than the Times Square ball drop in New York City and NBC has been providing televised coverage of the event in some way or another since the 1940s. In 2004, NBC introduced a special dedicated to covering the Times Square festivities that was originally titled New Year’s Eve With Carson Daly.
New Year’s Eve With Carson Daly ran until 2016 before taking a hiatus the following year, which marked the first time NBC failed to provide any New Year’s Eve programming since the special began in 2004. However, the special returned in 2018 re-branded as NBC’s New Year’s Eve 2019 and saw new co-host Chrissy Teigan joining in with the returning host Carson Daly, while actress-comedian Leslie Jones of Saturday Night Live fame and NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt appeared as guests.
Musical performances are a big part of the NBC New Year’s Eve festivities and keep viewers entertained as the clock ticks towards midnight. Over the years, everybody from Avril Lavigne and Alicia Keys to Mariah Carey and Maroon 5 have performed songs during the special but which musical guests appeared in NBC’s New Year’s Eve 2019? Read on for a rundown of every pop star that helped NBC bid farewell to 2018.
- Diana Ross
- Kelly Clarkson
- Andy Grammer
- John Legend
- Blake Shelton
- Jennifer Lopez
- Keith Urban
- Brett Young
- Bebe Rexha
Diana Ross, Kelly Clarkson, Andy Grammer, John Legend, Blake Shelton and singer/actress Jennifer Lopez all performed in Los Angeles – the latter singing the song “Limitless” from her then newly released romantic comedy Second Act – while country crooners Keith Urban and Brett Young performed via live telecast from Nashville. NBC’s New Year’s Eve 2019 also covered Grammy-nominated pop star Bebe Rexha’s performance of John Lennon's classic “Imagine” in the moments leading up to midnight. Playing or performing “Imagine” just before the ball drops has been a Times Square New Year’s Eve tradition since the mid-noughties and the song has also been performed by artists including Melissa Etheridge and Jessi J.
As star-studded an event NBC’s New Year’s Eve 2019 was, many viewers described the special as a “train wreck” after technical difficulties meant it didn’t provide coverage of the last few seconds of the countdown to midnight or the Times Square ball dropping. Such criticism could be why the NBC network looks set to shake up the format of its forthcoming New Year’s Eve coverage later in 2021. While the network has confirmed its special will return in December 2021 to ring in the new year, several outlets have reported it’ll feature a new structure and rumor has it Miley Cyrus could replace Carson Daly as host.