00:00This whole year was a pinch me year.
00:01We were all literally like, is this real?
00:04What is happening?
00:05It really has been an insane year for me.
00:07Something I want to leave in 2025.
00:09Oh, this is a good one.
00:11We're going to be performing Golden, of course,
00:14from K-pop Demon Hunters.
00:15I will be performing one of the biggest country songs
00:18out right now, All The Way, featuring Bailey Zimmerman.
00:20And the biggest, the largest, that's just me.
00:24I will be performing Midnight Sun and a little snippet
00:27of Lush Life for New Year's Eve.
00:28At New Year's Rockin' Eve, I will be performing Bar None
00:31and I Ain't Sayin'.
00:32I'm going to be performing my new single, Changes,
00:35which is the first single on my album due in March.
00:37It's called Whatever's Clever.
00:39We're going to play We Don't Talk Anymore,
00:40because who doesn't want to hear a sad song
00:42at the happiest time ever?
00:44And See You Again, a slightly different arrangement.
00:47I got wonderful singers on stage with me,
00:48and we're going to harmonize it in a way
00:50that I don't think anyone's heard before.
00:51Brand new single called Knockabye.
00:53We're also doing the ever-popular Iris.
00:55I'm going to be performing my song called Happen To Me.
00:58For New Year's Rockin' Eve, I will be performing two of my songs,
01:01Wind Up Missin' You and Burnett.
01:03Favorite New Year's Eve experience was...
01:07Some of my favorite New Year's Eve memories would have to be when I was little.
01:11When the clock would strike midnight, we would run up and down the streets,
01:15banging pots and pans, screaming Happy New Year's,
01:17and it's one of the only nights of the year that you can do that as a kid.
01:20Countdown, the last 10 seconds.
01:23If you got a woman next to you, you get to kiss her.
01:25If you got some liquor next to you, you get to drink to ask.
01:27It's just, you know, definitely that moment.
01:28That last 10 seconds, that's the best time.
01:31Probably being on New Year's Rockin' Eve,
01:33I feel like that was my answer for the past few,
01:35but it's just so exciting here.
01:37There's free drinks everywhere.
01:38One of my favorite New Year's experiences,
01:41the year that I got my Lifetime Achievement Award at the BET Awards.
01:45Actually, that year, the first time that I had all of my kids in the same room
01:50and being able to watch them all fall asleep,
01:52we came in from an after party with me receiving that Lifetime Achievement Award.
01:56We sent an assistant of mine to Mel's Diner to get her some breakfast,
02:00and it was so crowded that the food took about two and a half hours to come back.
02:04So while we was watching John Wick, they just started individually falling asleep,
02:08and I'm sitting there, and I seen this for the first time.
02:11It was a very emotional moment to hear my children breathe
02:15in their own breathing patterns sleeping,
02:17and New Year's Eve was the first time that we had all of our New Year's Eves celebrated together.
02:23Circumstances didn't always give me the opportunity to have them all in the same place
02:28for a New Year's Eve holiday celebration in particularly.
02:31There I go.
02:32So that was a big one for me.
02:34Can't tell that one. Hang on.
02:36I think we're the only artist we know or band we know
02:39that has turned down every New Year's Eve offer to play a show.
02:41We've had Times Square offered a jillion times events in Singapore, Dubai,
02:45and New Year's Eve for us is sacred.
02:47So genuinely, I think the year that pretty much most of you,
02:51if not all of you, came to the New Year's Eve parties when we were in Colorado
02:54working on our second and third albums,
02:56we would host New Year's Eve parties and just go crazy,
02:58and it was a lot of fun.
03:00That's some of my best memories, honestly,
03:01was just having friends over and watching Dick Clark.
03:04I don't have a favorite New Year's.
03:06I feel like every New Year is totally different.
03:08I celebrate in my own little way with my people every year in a different way.
03:13So all I have to say is I've had some incredible New Years.
03:16I don't know what to expect each time, but I love it.
03:19My favorite New Year's Eve experience was we played New Year's Eve of Y2K
03:25Yeah.
03:25in Times Square at the top of the building where MTV was.
03:29Yeah.
03:29Everybody thought it was the end of the world,
03:31so everybody was partying like it was 1999.
03:34I was pulling silly string out of my hair for a week and a half after that.
03:38And I don't remember how I got home.
03:39You know, it was funny because there was so much tension in the air.
03:42At the same time, like John said, everybody was just partying hard, man, so.
03:46Because we thought it was the end.
03:47Yeah, so it was a very, very strange feeling, but a lot of fun.
03:50And then at like 12.01, everyone went,
03:52No.
03:53What the hell?
03:54There's nothing.
03:55It was New Year's Eve 2006.
03:58I was invited to play a party in South Africa by Oprah Winfrey
04:03for the opening of her Leadership Academy for Girls.
04:06And I had no idea that I would be in a room full of cultural giants.
04:11I spent New Year's as the soundtrack of celebration for Oprah, Nelson Mandela, Cicely Tyson, Sidney Poitier, Tina Turner, Ashford and Simpson, Spike Lee, Tyler Perry, Mary J. Blige, and the list goes on.
04:26It was a very, very special moment in my life and absolutely my favorite New Year's Eve memory.
04:30No, I can't mention that one.
04:32My all-time favorite experience on New Year's Eve was I performed with Jelly Roll at Times Square and all of the confetti fell down and it was so magical, I'll never forget it.
04:40Mmm, no, that one either.
04:41Hold this New Year's for me was literally going back to my daddy's church.
04:4511.08 South Orange Avenue, if anyone wants to go north.
04:48Got that church right there and then singing in church that New Year's, so it like took me back to like the essence of where I was from.
04:54Doing that and then while looking at my mama's face, right, and then she's like seeing me, she's like,
04:58You see, you need to come back to the church, boy, I tell you.
05:02I'm a big outdoorsman.
05:04I love to go out to the hunting camp and hang out and there was one year where we were able to get four or five families out there, just really close friends, bring all the kids out, did our own fireworks show out at the hunting camp.
05:15That was 2019, so that was a special, special New Year's Eve.
05:18Favorite New Year's Eve experience, and this is not a lie, is tonight.
05:22Nothing.
05:23Everything that happened to me, whether it was in a negative or a positive way, taking everything with me to 2026 because it was bad, I learned from it, so.
05:30I want to look at my phone a little bit less because I feel like I come up with less musical ideas when I'm doom scrolling, like to be a bit more present.
05:37What I'm leaving behind is this, I am saying no for everything.
05:42Do not call me 25, I'm not going for the wait for it moment.
05:46No.
05:47I think maybe I'd like to leave behind a little self-doubt, a little worry about the future.
05:52I want to leave behind all of the heavy shit, that is what I want to leave behind, I don't know if I'm allowed to swear, but goodbye.
05:57The only thing that I'm going to add to it is I'm going to leave everyone that definitely is no longer welcome in our universe, if you can't add to it in a productive fashion.
06:06And that includes family members, so it is what it is.
06:09You can't be around disrupting the blessed energy space.
06:12We're going to leave all of them and all of that shenanigan in 2025.
06:16Singular shenanigans.
06:19One shenanigan.
06:21I would like to leave any form of procrastination, so whether it's a conversation, a task, responsibility, issue, just handle it immediately.
06:30Handle it upfront, don't wait until later because it only grows bigger and bigger and then it comes back to haunt you.
06:35I'm leaving all doubt and negativity in 2025.
06:38I'd like to leave certainly hunger and wars behind, has a chance to affect all of us eventually, so leave it behind early as we can.
06:47I'm going to leave a little stress back in 2025, enjoy every second, enjoy every moment, enjoy life's imperfections, enjoy the journey, enjoy the ride.
06:56This whole year was a pinch me year.
06:58Yeah.
06:59Like literally.
07:00I think for me it was the Macy's Day Thanksgiving Day Parade.
07:03There'll be SNL for you.
07:04That too, but it just keeps topping each other.
07:07It's just like, I don't know anymore.
07:09So many.
07:10I know.
07:11Oh, you know what was kind of funny was seeing my mom and Jimmy Fallon talk about kimchi together.
07:16Aww.
07:17Oh, what?
07:18Yeah.
07:19That was cute.
07:20Does he like kimchi?
07:21Yeah, he does.
07:22He loves it.
07:23Oh, wow.
07:24My pinch me moment of the year, being told that I was going to sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl.
07:28I'm not nervous now, but I'm sure I'm going to be nervous leading up to it, probably a week leading up to it.
07:32I actually found out from my local paper, The Star Ledger in New Jersey, shout out to New Jersey, that I am the second New Jersey native to perform the national anthem.
07:41The first being Whitney Houston.
07:42So there's that.
07:43Pinch me moment of the year was probably how special Dancing with the Stars was this year.
07:48And that it became a cultural phenomenon after 20 years, and that just doesn't happen.
07:54So I was just so grateful.
07:56My pinch me moment of the year was the Grammy nomination.
07:59And it just took me by surprise.
08:01We were rehearsing or sound checking for the show.
08:03We were in Dublin.
08:04I just got a call from my manager and she was just like, the Grammy, the Grammy.
08:09I called my mom.
08:10I called my sister.
08:11I called my friends.
08:12I was crying.
08:13And then I felt silly for crying.
08:14And then I felt silly for feeling silly that I was crying because like, just be in it.
08:18You know, be in your emotions.
08:19It's a big deal.
08:20It's a really big deal for me, especially since it's being recognized by my peers.
08:25We ended up getting invited by the government of China.
08:28Technically, we were the first American act to get invited to play their Spring Gala,
08:32which is a TV show as hard as it is to imagine in America with the Super Bowl.
08:36It's the most watched show in the world.
08:382.8 billion people watch it.
08:39We didn't really understand the scope of it when we did it.
08:42We were playing Wuhan and we said, sure.
08:44After we played the arena, Wuhan, we drove at midnight to a giant golden pagoda.
08:50It's 1230 in the morning, 1 AM by the time we go on.
08:53And there are hundreds of Chinese fans all out there with this incredible stage.
08:58And we're performing from 1 to 1.30 in the morning in front of a giant pagoda in Wuhan, China.
09:04And we were just like on the stage.
09:05Oh, that's right.
09:06We were all on the stage going, what is our life?
09:09So that was the pinch me moment.
09:11I would have to say going overseas.
09:12Going overseas and seeing all those different people from different cultures,
09:16knowing my words.
09:17People that didn't even speak English knew the words to my songs.
09:20What happened to me has absolutely happened to me.
09:24It's been a crazy year.
09:25My pinch me moment for the year is probably this.
09:27New Year's Rockin' Eve is such an iconic show.
09:30And I'm not just saying that because we're on it.
09:31Also this year, I got to do the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
09:34It's been a year for your boy.
09:37I love you guys.
09:38You are the best fans in the entire world.
09:40My pinch me moment of the year would have to be on my wedding night when the day was completed,
09:46the ceremony was done, the party had happened.
09:49We were just reflecting on what an incredible day it was.
09:52And my pinch me moment was just realizing that my dreams came true and I married the love of my life.
09:57Pinch me moment of the year, being right here tonight.
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