Gwen Stefani kicked off the final countdown to 2020 in style as the first performer of NBC’s New Year’s Eve 2021 with Carson Daly.
The 51-year-old singer was the first of many performers in the star-studded, two-part, two-hour special, live from a largely-empty Times Square in New York City.
While New Year’s Eve certainly looked different, with only pods of essential workers in Times Square, Stefani’s electric performance started the night off right.
Stylish Gwen: Gwen Stefani kicked off the final countdown to 2020 in style as the first performer of NBC’s New Year’s Eve 2021 with Carson Daly
First performer: The 51-year-old singer was the first of many performers in the star-studded, two-part, two-hour special, live from a largely-empty Times Square in New York City
Stefani was singing her brand new single Let Me Reintroduce Myself in a performance from Los Angeles.
The blonde beauty was rocking a unique fringed look with an acid-washed blue denim jacket with sparkling fringes, and a ‘star’ top underneath.
She also rocked matching acid-washed jeans with matching fringes and white boots, with her blonde hair tied up in a ponytail, with a number of silver necklaces.
New single: Stefani was singing her brand new single Let Me Reintroduce Myself in a performance from Los Angeles
Gwen’s look: The blonde beauty was rocking a unique fringed look with an acid-washed blue denim jacket with sparkling fringes, and a ‘star’ top underneath
On stage: She also rocked matching acid-washed jeans with matching fringes and white boots, with her blonde hair tied up in a ponytail, with a number of silver necklaces
They open on a very different Times Square with hosts Carson Daly and Amber Ruffin, who are the only ones there at an empty Times Square.
Caron Daly gives a shout-out to all of the essential workers, with Ruffin introducing Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss, who was down on the street level.
He reveals that there are a number of ‘pods’ filled with essential workers, who he’s going to be speaking with throughout the night.
Open: They open on a very different Times Square with hosts Carson Daly and Amber Ruffin, who are the only ones there at an empty Times Square
tWitch: Caron Daly gives a shout-out to all of the essential workers, with Ruffin introducing Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss, who was down on the street level
Daly reveals this is his 20th anniversary of hosting New Year’s Eve on NBC, which he said was a ‘wild ride.’
They introduce a behind-the-scenes package about the COVID-19 precautions that are taken, including testing and the first responders and essential workers who were brought in ‘pods’ to celebrate the new year.
NBC’s Harry Smith says they have ‘run out of adjectives’ to describe how bad the year is, so they made up words to describe it.
Testing: They introduce a behind-the-scenes package about the COVID-19 precautions that are taken, including testing and the first responders and essential workers who were brought in ‘pods’ to celebrate the new year
Smith starts breaking down the year that was 2020, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the death of Kobe Bryant and the impeachment of Donald Trump.
He also mentions the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor that brought people to the streets in protest, along with sports without fans, schools without students as everything goes virtual.
The next performance is from Latin pop group CNCO, performing their rendition of Enrique Iglesias’ Hero, their first fully-English song.
Virtual: He also mentions the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor that brought people to the streets in protest, along with sports without fans, schools without students as everything goes virtual
The group, comprised of Joel Pimentel, Richard Camacho, Erick Brian Colón, Christopher Vélez and Zabdiel De Jesús, will release a full album full of cover songs, including Hero, on their new album Deja Vu, arriving in February.
The next performance is Sting and Shirazee performing Englishman-African In New York, in a pre-filmed performance.
The video features Sting in all black – a big black hat, black coat, balck top and black pants, as he strolled through the streets with his ‘walking stick.’
New York: The video features Sting in all black – a big black hat, black coat, balck top and black pants, as he strolled through the streets with his ‘walking stick’
Shirazee rocked a light brown turtleneck with a matching brown coat with unique patches all over the coat, with a thick silver bracelet.
Shirazee released his version of Sting’s iconic 1987 song Englishman in New York called African In New York, with Sting’s blessing, earlier this month.
Their performance combined both versions into one seamless song from both singers.
Steve Kornacki broke down his top 5 things to look forward to in 2021, which included Broadway re-opening, a new Space Jam and James Bond, sporting events like the Summer Olympics, along with being social and spending next year in Times Square.
Blake Shelton zooms in from his home in Oklahoma, who confirms that he had a pretty good year in 2020, even though some ‘bad things happened.’
‘I can’t speak for anybody else, I had a great 2020. Me, personally, I got engaged to Gwen Stefani, and I don’t care what happens after that,’ he said.
Before they played the world premiere of the music video of his song Minimum Wage, Shelton keeps asking Carson to ‘interview me.’
Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss goes through all the pods and talks to essential workers, who are later seen dancing to Gloria Gaynor as she performs her hit song I Will Survive.
They then throw it to Football Night In America hosts Blank as they introdcuce a video package of various celebrities destroying various renditions of 2020 like Kristen Chenoweth.
Chloe x Halle perform Do It from Los Angeles, wearing matching sparkling mini-dresses and diamond-encrusted headdresses.
Carson Daly introduces New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who says they are all ready to ‘turn the page’ on the year of 2020.
Carson: Carson Daly introduces New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who says they are all ready to ‘turn the page’ on the year of 2020
Cuomo mentions that they have to ‘re-open the economy but we have to do it safely,’ confirming that the upcoming Buffalo Bills playoff football game will be the first event where every attendee will be COVID-19 tested.
‘2020 was terrible but there are lessons to be learned,’ he added.’
Dionne Warwick says not to ‘bring that foolishness into 2021’ while wishing everyone a happy new year as the first half of the New Year’s Eve special comes to a close.
Lessons: ‘2020 was terrible but there are lessons to be learned,’ he added’