New Year’s Eve Organizers Release Star-Studded Roster of Musical Talent and Special Appearances Set to Lead International Celebration in Times Square ~ First Lady Michelle Obama to Address Revelers via Pre-Taped Video Message ~ UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Announced as New Year’s Eve Special Guest

(Black PR Wire) Times Square, N.Y.  —Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment, the co-organizers of Times Square New Year’s Eve, today announced the official Times Square New Year’s Eve event lineup, which will feature live performances by Gavin DeGraw, Rachel Platten, Silentó, Mariah Carey, Gloria Estefan and the Cast of Broadway’s “On Your Feet!,” Thomas Rhett, Don Omar, Lupillo Rivera and Luis Coronel as well as an array of special activities and appearances happening throughout the evening.

The iconic, international celebration will begin with the lighting and raising of the New Year’s Eve Ball atop One Times Square. The official opening ceremony will also include a spectacular Chinese cultural performance presented by the Sino-American Friendship Association (SAFA).  As festivities continue, celebrity guests will read several confetti wishes for the New Year, submitted by the public and all transcribed on authentic confetti that will be released at midnight. They will also share their confetti wish for the New Year.

Revelers across the globe will be able to experience the excitement of the Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration via the six-hour, live commercial-free webcast, enabled by Livestream. The webcast will capture all of the action, including musical performances by Gavin DeGraw, Rachel Platten, Silentó, Don Omar, Lupillo Rivera, Luis Coronel and the inaugural New Year, New Voices selection, Jojo Abot. 

Jojo Abot was selected to perform as part of the New Year, New Voices program, which was inspired by the idea that Times Square New Year’s Eve can become a platform to further promote and launch the career of a local New York City emerging artist. Abot is a Ghanaian singer-songwriter and her music features a worldwide sound with an experimental blend of electronica, afrobeat, jazz, neo-soul, house and reggae.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will serve as the evening’s Special Guest and will join New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to push the Waterford crystal button and lead the sixty-second countdown to the New Year.

On New Year’s Eve, approximately one million revelers will fill New York City’s Times Square joined by over 198 million Americans and more than one billion television viewers worldwide who will ring in the new year watching the historic Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball Drop. For 112 years, Times Square has been the center of worldwide attention on New Year’s Eve, ever since the owners of One Times Square began in 1904 to conduct rooftop celebrations to greet the New Year. The first Ball Lowering celebration occurred in 1907, and this tradition is now a universal symbol of welcoming the New Year.

Times Square 2017 LIVE performances on the Planet Fitness, Countdown and Kiss Stages:

• Mariah Carey performs on ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest”
• Gloria Estefan and the Cast of Broadway’s “On Your Feet!” perform on ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest
• DNCE performs on ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest”
• Thomas Rhett performs on ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest”
• Gavin DeGraw performs his classic hits I Don’t Want To Be, Not Over You and latest single She Sets the City on Fire
• Rachel Platten performs Fight Song, Stand By You among other hit songs including John Lennon’s Imagine before the Ball Drop at midnight
• Silentó performs Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)
• Jojo Abot performs To li  as part of the inaugural New Year, New Voices platform
• Don Omar performs on Univision’s, “¡Feliz 2017!” 
• Lupillo Rivera performs on Univision’s, “¡Feliz 2017!”
• Luis Coronel performs on Univision’s, “¡Feliz 2017!” 
• The USO Show Troupe performs their popular A Military Salute to honor our Armed Forces
• The Sino-American Friendship Association (“SAFA”) presents a Chinese cultural performance

Times Square 2017 LIVE Hourly Countdowns Presented by:

• CNN anchor Anderson Cooper
• Silentó
• Fox News Channel hosts Kimberly Guilfoyle and Eric Bolling
• Representatives from Planet Fitness
• Univision host Raúl de Molina
• And then, the final 60-second countdown with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio

In addition to the live performances and hourly countdowns, the evening will feature many more special moments, including: 

·         First Lady Michelle Obama will address the revelers in Times Square via a pre-taped video message, offering her wishes for the New Year, and discussing the United States government initiative Let Girls Learn;

·         The FYI network will celebrate the January 3rd series premiere of its show, “Kiss Bang Love”, where singles choose a potential match based on blindfold kissing. To mark the occasion, FYI will entertain the revelers with a Times Square New Year’s Eve version of “Kiss Bang Love”;

·         Presenting sponsor Planet Fitness will showcase The Judgement Free Marching Band by the famed Marching Cobras with student participants from all five New York City boroughs. The Marching Cobras will play “Uptown Funk”;

·         The Associated Press, the world’s oldest and largest news gathering organization, will present a news reel highlighting some of the most important and memorable events of 2016 at 11:15 p.m.   

National television and radio personality Allison Hagendorf (Global Head of Rock at Spotify and Live Announcer of the MTV Video Music Awards and MTV Movie Awards) returns for her fifth year as the Times Square New Year’s Eve Event Host. Jonathan Bennett, star of Mean Girls and host of Cake Wars, will be the Webcast Host for the first time joined by street correspondents Andrea Boehlke and Jeremy Hassell.

The eighth annual webcast will cover the action and festivities in Times Square, beginning with the Ball Raising at 6 p.m. EST, include live musical performances, hourly countdowns, behind-the-scenes stories, and star-studded interviews as anticipation builds towards the midnight countdown and famous Ball Drop.  The custom-designed embeddable video provides viewers with a full Times Square New Year’s Eve experience.  This live webcast video experience is available for digital media outlets, bloggers, social media editors, webmasters, and Facebook users to embed as a source of fun and entertaining content on their own sites. 

The Times Square 2017 Webcast will begin at 5:55 p.m. EST on December 31, 2016 and end at 12:15 a.m. on January 1, 2017 EST. The show will be streamed live on multiple websites, including TimesSquareNYC.org, Livestream.com/2017  and TimesSquareBall.net.

Embedding codes and additional webcast info is available at: timessquarenyc.org/events/new-years-eve/webcast/index.aspx or Livestream.com/2017.

The Times Square 2017 Webcast is also available for live viewing on Android and Apple devices with the Times Square Ball App and is viewable on mobile browsers at TimesSquareNYC.org, NewYearsEve.nyc, and TimesSquareBall.net.

Info for the Times Square New Year’s Eve television broadcast pool feed is available at http://www.timessquarenyc.org/events/new-years-eve/for-mediapress/index.aspx.

To join the Times Square New Year’s Eve conversation on Twitter, follow #BallDrop.

For more information about Times Square New Year’s Eve, visit www.TimesSquareNYC.org.

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 About Times Square New Year's Eve

The Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment are the organizers of Times Square New Year's Eve. The Times Square Alliance works to improve and promote Times Square so that it retains the energy, edge and distinctiveness that have made it an icon of entertainment, culture and urban life. Countdown Entertainment represents the owners of One Times Square and the New Year’s Eve Ball.

Times Square Alliance: TimesSquareNYC.org

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