Who sang Imagine at Times Square on New Year's Eve 2024? Iconic ball drop tradition explored

The ball drop event, held at New York's Times Square on December 31, 2024, featured Mickey Guyton performing John Lennon's Imagine. A Rolling Stone report stated that in addition to Imagine, Guyton performed other songs, such as House on Fire.

The 41-year-old is well-known for her albums Remember Her Name and House on Fire and has been featured on shows such as Mickey Mouse Funhouse.

NBC New York reported that the ball drop tradition at Times Square started in 1907. According to Insider, the ball has undergone various changes over the years, and the first one weighed around 700 pounds. The basic process is that the ball slowly comes down a pole at 11.59 pm, and people start counting down 60 seconds until they enter the New Year.

The ball is taken on top of the pole at 6 pm, and anyone willing to watch the ceremony live can visit Times Square's official website. As per NBC News, Jonathan Bennett and Jeremy Hassell hosted this year's ceremony.

This year, people continued celebrating the tradition despite the rain in New York City. People magazine stated that meteorologists predicted rainy weather even before the ball drop ceremony started, and the sound of the rain was heard while the event was being shown on various networks.

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Times Square ball drop tradition marks the beginning of the New Year

As mentioned, the first Times Square ball drop ceremony was held in 1907, and the main person who contributed to the ceremony's popularity was Adolph Ochs, who owned The New York Times. After establishing the newspaper's headquarters in the new Times building in 1904, Ochs organized a celebration for New Year's Eve featuring fireworks.

The tradition continued until explosives were banned in New York City after two years, as stated by NPR. However, Ochs did not give up and continued looking for another way to celebrate the occasion.

Adolph then learned about an iron ball drop tradition at the downtown Western Union Telegraph Company building. This led to the idea of an iron and wood ball weighing around 700 pounds and decorated with hundreds of bulbs. Metalworker Jacob Starr, who worked for Artkraft Strauss, created the ball, which led to the beginning of a new ceremony in 1907.

While speaking to CNN, Jacob Starr's granddaughter, Tama, claimed that her grandfather was the one who developed the idea of the ball drop at Times Square. She said that it was dropped by hand for many years.

"The idea was to… have it illuminated with the brand-new electricity that had just come up to the neighborhood."

There has been no countdown to mark the New Year for a long time. The process started in the '60s, and the gatherings began in 1979. Before all this, the original ball at Times Square was replaced with an aluminum ball in 1955, which featured more lights. According to NPR, technology elements were added to the ball in the '90s, and LED lighting was also included in 2007.

Almost 1 million people attended the recent ball drop ceremony, and popular faces from the music industry gave their best performances. The list includes names such as Mark Ambor, Megan Moroney, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, and Triad Brass.