For the fourth consecutive year, CBS’ New Year’s Eve celebrations were combined with a live concert accompanied by a musical note and fireworks at midnight at the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park in Nashville.

More than most things Music City and popular culture, the six-hour event felt like the closest thing to the country’s commercial capital, which was completely comfortable with having the most dominant hand over the broadest spectrum of America’s entertainment and entertainment markets to have social desires.

That said, the Metro Nashville Police Department and event officials estimated that a record number of approximately 220,000 revelers attended the “New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash” festivities sponsored by Jack Daniel’s.

Jelly Roll’s breakthrough superstar evolution

Part of the two percent increase in attendance from 2023 is due to the event headliner and Nashville native Jelly Roll.

The Grammy-nominated artist’s headlining set brought together the best parts of his 2024 success, including his four-dozen-date “Beautifully Broken” tour of North America, a tribute to hip-hop classics during his set at CMA Fest and became special from a world-renowned pitcher selling the spiritual power of redemptive redemption.

The reaction of the live audience, who loudly chanted “Jelly Jelly Jelly” at several points throughout the evening, showed that his development into superstardom was complete.

Kane Brown, Shaboozey, shine

Cast members Kane Brown and Shaboozey initially seemed overwhelmed and ultimately grateful for the packed crowd in downtown Nashville.

Brown’s performance highlighted how, despite being 31 years old and seemingly an integral part of Nashville’s modern mainstream country community, he has also amazingly matured as he reaches his 10th year in a “10-year city.” .

Backed by a backing band that sounded tighter than ever – likely due to the “Like I Love Country Music” actor’s hectic touring schedule – he got the crowd so excited that he signed a fan contract during a break from Brown’s live set Wish her broken arm was cast.

He also welcomed his wife Katelyn Brown, mother of his three children and 2023 “Thank God” duet partner, to the stage to perform her new Latin pop track “Body Talk.”

As such, Shaboozey, the Virginia native whose single “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” spent five months of 2024 at the top of Billboard’s Country Sales and Genre Hot 100 charts, has moved on from headlining the Basement East in May a gig designed for 10x, then 100x as many people just two weeks after that show. He finished the year by significantly exceeding that standard at the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park.

At one point in the second chorus of “Tipsy,” Shaboozey’s eyes watered and his cheeks flushed with amused astonishment that a crowd whose population was a third of Nashville’s total was singing along with as much unbridled joy as he had in his voice for his megahit .

Legends and rising stars in the spotlight

Also notable was Keith Urban, co-host of the television event, who opened the evening with “Straight Line” from his new album “HIGH” and the radio hit “Messed Up As Me”. He also welcomed rising singer Alana Springsteen, who performed Lainey Wilson’s verse on the friendly party anthem “GO HOME WU.”

Also fresh from sharing the stage with Beyonce during a Netflix broadcast At the NFL halftime concert on Christmas Day, Brittney Spencer performed “I Got Time” from her “My Stupid Life” album and received a warm reception.

While the evening’s lineup isn’t as directly tailored to a mood or style as 2023’s Southern-rock-friendly lineup of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Lainey Wilson, Elle King, Grace Bowers and Jackson Dean, it does illustrate the breadth of the band’s cultural reach country in 2025.

“Nashville’s (upturn allows artists like me) to quickly find success and tick opportunities and spots off the list,” offered the 24-year-old singer, who collaborated with Chris Stapleton on her critically acclaimed track “Ghost In My Guitar.” the year 2023 worked together.”

In 2025 she will be traveling with her “Big Bash” partner Urban. This follows a two-year swing that saw her debut at the Grand Ole Opry and the Ryman Auditorium, perform at Nissan Stadium during CMA Fest, score an NPR Tiny Desk special, and also perform with notable country chart-toppers like Luke Bryan and Tyler Hubbard went on tour.

“Artists and storytellers following in the footsteps of their heroes is a tradition that will continue for another generation. However, the opportunity to (become famous in the country at the moment) allows artists like me to have the most fun while reaching for a bar that has been set “higher every day.”

“I’m not feeling well”

The evening concluded with the first installment of what could be a musical tradition at the Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park’s year-end festivities.

Jelly Roll on Tuesday night and Lynyrd Skynyrd a year earlier had included performances of “Simple Man” – its 1973 classic – in their set. Jelly Roll’s version has been featured in his work for years. However, when taken into account in the development of his career as a gospel-blues crooner, he takes on a morally admirable air that allows the listener to reflect on and resolve “problems that have come and gone over the past year.”

In December 2023, Skynyrd’s Rickey Medlocke and Johnny Van Zant told The Tennessean that the band’s legacy was characterized by some of the same “dirty, hot, dark and sleazy” aesthetic that Jelly Roll has long considered part of its existence as well .

“Our iconic songs have also not failed to help our fans through their lives,” Medlocke added.

On a night marked by resolutions, Jelly Roll’s headlining New Year’s Eve set was more a celebration of 220,000 people reaching the finish line at the end of the year, not with the help of Jelly Roll the rapper or country singer, but with the next chapter in the career of the prize winner – the development into a folk hero – takes on its most profound form to date.

As he rousingly sang his latest hit on stage: “I’m not okay / But it’s all gonna be alright / It’s not okay / But we’re all gonna be alright.”

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jelly Roll, Keith Urban and more bring heartwarming 2024 closer to Nashville’s New Year’s Eve celebrations