The Jingle Ball is a holiday tradition. Starting in 1995, The Jingle Ball has since then become an annual concert celebrating the festive season as well as the closing of another year. For the past twenty-four years, artists alike have gathered at Madison Square Garden and performed for the masses. Due to its popularity, areas like Phillidephilia, Boston, and London have all followed suit and started to host their own holiday concerts. After years of maintaining this tradition, people began to grow worried about what would happen to it with recent developments with the Coronavirus. However, The Jingle Ball still continued this year, just with a slightly new approach.

Unlike most years, which normally have anywhere from fifteen to twenty performers, this Jingle Ball only had seven; Doja Cat, Shawn Mendes, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipe, Lewis Capaldi, Sam Smith, Harry Styles, and The Weeknd. Each artist pre-recorded their set, and under COVID guidelines, performed either solo or with a band. 

Many of the artists decided to corner classic Christmas songs like Doja Cat’s rendition of “Santa Baby ”, and Lewis Capaldi’s version of Wham!’s “Last Christmas”. Each artist took some time during their performance to speak to the views and reach out to them. Harry Styles sweetly wished his viewers at home saying that he, “just want to say happy holidays, hope you’re staying safe and managed to make the best of a rough year.”

All in all, even though it was different, the 2020 Jingle Ball was still full of great prefaces by a wide array of artists. Nothing can beat the energy of a stadium full of people hyped up on the holiday spirit, but seeing some of your favorite artists play a fifteen-minute set is still a great holiday treat.