Ed Sheeran performed a finely judged set with this year’s two hits and two ringers off Divide. I could have watched Saweetie (MC Hammer’s niece) all night long as she danced up a storm on neo-classics “Tap In” and “Icy Chain”.

Kane Brown was given the shortest set, just two songs. Tate McRae (awful at Gov Ball in September, here) and especially Dixie D’Amelio were overwhelmed to be performing (“Two years ago I was up there,” she said, pointing directly at me), AJR and Jonas Brothers were balls of energy. The ten artist line up saw everyone bringing their A game and with a little longer time on stage (Jonas Brothers received HALF AN HOUR) they actually didn’t waste it at all. Ever since CW signed on to film and present the show on the network they’ve been chipping away at it, streamlining and making it more like everyone else.

If the lack of the killa dilla is a problem, the final ripping off the vestiges of Jingle Ball the tradition occurred, they got rid of the twitter board where attendees (now as then, mainly teen girls) got to see their name in lights, the vibe was less “wow, I can’t believe we’re here than I have ever seen). The loss skewered the evening, it was too male centric (and male centric isn’t 2021). While, for me, Saweetie and Lil Nas X alone are enough reason to go, they are missing that one A lister to put it through the roof… and then they lost two of the biggest acts and apparently their rolodex is in cobwebs as they failed to replace them. So when I say it was anemic what I mean is… well, in 2015, for instance, there was Taylor Swift, One Direction, Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber. In the pre-rocknyc era, I went to maybe as many as fifteen of the first twenty shows. Since 2009 (the one where Justin Bieber performed on crutches -I know) to last night I’ve made it to MSG’s spectacular except 2020 and no prizes for guessing what happened last year. Dua Lipa cancelled due to illness and Doja Cat cancelled due to a Covid 19 illness in her entourage and it made a somewhat anemic line up for the 2021 Jingle Ball at Madison Square Garden on Friday night that much quieter.

Jingle ball lineup 2021