The Christmas spirit took over New York on Wednesday with the traditional lighting of the Rockefeller Center tree, which was accompanied by the carols of Marc Anthony and Michael Bublé and the energy of the dancers The Rockettes.
As night fell on Fifth Avenue before 5:00 p.m., thousands of people were already prowling the Big Apple’s downtown area, limited by police barriers, to enjoy the celebrations around the majestic fir tree placed at the foot of the Rockefeller skyscraper.
The show began at 8 p.m. with a series of live performances that fueled programming hosted by country star Reba McEntire on NBC, whose studios are located in the commercial real estate complex.
Puerto Rican-born singer Marc Anthony was probably the most anticipated figure and won over the audience with his salsa rendition of José Feliciano’s classic ‘Feliz Navidad / I wanna wish you a merry Christmas’, or his hit ‘Vivir la vida’, dancing on stage.
Michael Bublé, who sang ‘It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas’ and shared the spotlight with Carly Pearce, with their joint song ‘Maybe this Christmas’, also caused a Christmas furor.
Michael Bublé and Marc Anhtony enthusiastic
Other guests were Gwen Stefani, with ‘Merry Christmas’; Laufey, with ‘Santa Claus is coming to town’; New Edition, with ‘It’s Christmas (All Over The World), and Halle Bailey, with ‘My Favorite Things’ or ‘Silent Night’.
And there were more Anglo-Saxon carols with well-known voices from the ‘country’ world: Brad Paisley performed the classic ‘A Marshmallow World’, and Kristin Chenoweth duetted with Reba McEntire for ‘Silver Bells’.
The show also featured The Rockettes, the group of precision dancers known for their synchronized, leg-lifting steps, which was created a century ago and has become indispensable every Christmas at New York’s Radio City.
The climax came at ten o’clock at night, when a countdown that echoed throughout the area caused all eyes to focus on the tree and, finally, its green color was completely covered by thousands of colored lights, while a choir sang ‘Joy to the world’.
The tree, a Norwegian fir tree 23 meters high, 14 meters in diameter and 11 tons, is decorated with 50,000 LED lights spread over eight kilometers of cable, and crowned by a star with three million Swarovski crystals, 2.7 meters and 400 kilos in weight.
It is one of New York’s great Christmas attractions, illuminated every day until mid-January from 5 a.m. to midnight, except for Christmas Day, when it ‘works’ 24 hours a day, and the last day of the year, when it has reduced hours.
As every year, the tree has been donated by a family, in this case from East Greenbush, near New York State’s capital, Albany, in the north, reported Agencia EFE, and once it is removed it will be used for the construction of housing for the affordable housing NGO Habitat for Humanity.
Find out more at ‘QueOnnda.com’.
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