It’s December 13, 2024.
Picture this: the ultimate pre-party before one of the biggest nights in music. Hammerstein Ballroom is lit up with crowds, giveaways, artists performing, and more.
The Z100 All-Access Lounge is the preshow to iHeartRadio’s Jingle Ball concert. One of the largest concerts of the year. The main show takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York City, with this year’s headliners include Katy Perry, Tate McRae, Gracie Abrams, Twenty One Pilots, and more.
I was lucky enough to attend the preshow, the All-Access Lounge hosted by Elvis Duran and the rest of the Z100 hosts.
This year’s artist lineup for the Lounge includes Mckenna Grace, Dasha, Myles Smith, Alex Warren, Mark Ambor, Isabel LaRosa, WONHO, and POW. I honestly wasn’t sure who I was most excited to see.
The ticketing process wasn’t like we had to pay or anything. The fan passes are from iota1, a popular website where users can enter their email and be placed in a queue for tickets. There are other events such as late-night TV tapings, movie screenings, and daytime television tapings.
The day started by arriving at the Hammerstein Ballroom around 9:30 in the morning. My mom and I went together because the tickets allowed for one guest. My mom grew up wanting to go to the All-Access Lounge, so we went together.
It was 27 degrees that morning and I neglected to wear the proper attire, as I was dressed more for the events inside.
The people who were participating in the event were unable to go inside until 11, so my mom and I arrived pretty early to get there.
Once let inside, they do a bag check and metal detector screening, similar to entering a concert. When I entered the Hammerstein Ballroom, there were booths from the sponsors of the event. These sponsors included M&M, Ulta Beauty, Covergirl, Boost Mobile, Lincoln Tech, Dunkin Donuts, Smashburger, Scunci by Con-Air, PetMeds, Splat! Hair Dye, and more.
When I walked in, the venue was crowded, filled with energetic people who were just as excited to be there as I was.
We first stopped at the Covergirl booth, where they were giving away compact mirrors with engravings on them. My mom and I both had our names engraved on our respective compacts.
The two of us were more focused on the music and hopefully winning tickets to Jingle Ball that night, so we only went to the booths that we wanted to. Our next stops were Coca-Cola, where we got little plush bears, and Dunkin Donuts, where we got a gift card, fanny pack, and donut as a sweet treat.
Shortly after, we made our way to the stage and stood left side, but we were at the barricade. I considered this to be a great achievement since I didn’t have to push through; there were enough people where I was able to just walk to the front.
We stood two rows of people behind the barricade, which was really cool because I had only been barricade one other time and it was when I saw Hippo Campus in Central Park last summer.
The morning started with Josh Martinez taking the stage along with DJ Whatever (yes, that is his actual DJ name). Martinez normally holds the 6pm-10pm slot on Z100.
As all events usually start, Martinez began by hyping up the crowd. Almost immediately though, he went into the giveaways. “I have four passes to meet McKenna Grace at 11:55.”
I started screaming and shouting to get my voice heard. McKenna Grace is an actress who began her career very young. It was only in 2020 when she started to release music. Personally, I’m a big fan and was really excited to hear that I could have the chance to meet her.
Eventually my screaming had caught the attention of Martinez, and he walked into the crowd to get to my mom and me. He handed me the passes and I thanked him with a huge smile on my face and my mom started taking photos to document the moment.
After a few failed attempts to win Jingle Ball tickets, it was time to head down to the meet and greet with Grace. We ended up going into the basement of the Hammerstein Ballroom and stood in line with the group of people who were also slated to meet Grace.
Finally, inside of the black curtains that were set up, I waved politely at the celebrity in front of me and we had a very quick conversation. She complimented my cross and angel wing necklaces and showed me that she had just gotten a cross tattoo. In return, I showed the tattoo I have on my arm and then we proceeded to smile for the photo.
Returning back to the main area of the venue, popular K-pop band POW had already taken the stage. They were singing their song “Slow Dancing,” which honestly was one of my favorites. Particularly because it mentions the lyrics “We’ll be listening to Frank Sintara/God I want ya/And the way that you look tonight,” with the small reference to Sinatra, my day was instantly made.
We came back in near the end of the song, but it was still cool to hear live. They didn’t have much crowd interaction with the short time slot they were given so they moved into the next song, “Boyfriend,” which is their version of Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend,” even asking the audience to sing the chorus with them. Quickly, they transitioned into their final song, “Dazzling,” a fun and upbeat little song to dance to.
Shortly after, there was a small break to change the stage for the next artist. During each break, Martinez comes back out, sometimes bringing Shelly Rome, who hosts from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., or Kiana, who takes the 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. shift. There are many attempts for people to win tickets to Jingle Ball, and I lost out each time.
The next artist to take the stage was Grace. She first played her recent release, “Swim Team.” Following up with two of her hits, “You Ruined Nirvana” and “LOSER!!” The entire time during Grace’s set I was screaming the words to her songs.
The singer even broke her heel before performing “You Ruined Nirvana,” to which she commented, “It’s better for rock and roll.” She was very nervous and giggly, but that could’ve also been her personality.
Grace put on a high-energy set that I would love to see in full at another point in time.
As previously mentioned, between every set, the Z100 radio hosts came out between each one to auction off Jingle Ball tickets and interact with the audience.
Quickly, the next artist took the stage. Isabel LaRosa took the stage wearing a motorcycle helmet with the introduction to her hit song, “i’m yours,” playing as the entrance music. Her set was a little bit longer, giving LaRosa the chance to play five songs instead of three like the previous two artists.
“eyes don’t lie” was the next song LaRosa followed with. She played more to the opposite side of the stage during this song. LaRosa dances around the stage while her younger brother plays the guitar. The duo reminded me a lot of a Billie Eilish and Finneas type of relationship where they’re able to play together on stage.
“Muse” and “older” were the next songs that followed. The two songs could not be more different, but I had fun, nonetheless. During “older,” LaRosa even came over to my side of the stage and waved at me! It was a really cool experience.
“favorite” was the last song that LaRosa played. This is one of her top songs on Spotify and Apple Music. LaRosa sings this song in both English and Spanish.
Wanho, another K-pop artist, took the stage next. He played three songs, and his set was honestly one of my favorites. I went in not really knowing much about him, but he is such a great performer. In his first song, “Lose,” he utilized backup dancers and was the first artist of the day to do so.
He performed his latest release, “What Would You Do” shortly after, asking the audience if they already knew the words. The song was released November 22 of this year, so not too long before this event.
I was amazed to see that the audience knew the words. In his final song, “Open Mind,” Wanho thanked the audience for being so amazing and already knowing the words to his song.
Next on the stage was Mark Ambor. I knew a few of Ambor’s songs from TikTok and had actually used his song “Belong Together” in a video on the Quinnipiac YouTube channel. While this was not his first song, he did start with one of my favorites, “I Hope it All Works Out.”
Ambor plays mostly acoustic for his set, which I find so charming. I’ve grown to appreciate acoustic artists more since Hozier and Noah Kahan started to play more of their songs like that.
The song was followed up with “Academy Street” and then “Good to Be.” I love when artists do a high-energy song, then one that has a buildup, which is what Ambor did. Even if the audience didn’t know the words to the songs, I will admit I didn’t know all the words either, everyone was still dancing.
Ambor’s final song was “Belong Together,” and I can’t say that the video sounds too great because I was screaming the words to the song. Ambor threw some guitar picks into the crowd before he left.
Something I appreciate about each artist is how grateful they are to be at the event. This is something that helps their career, but you can tell they are genuinely so happy to be there. It warms my heart to see each artist smiling and being in shock that they had come this far in their careers to be playing at an event such as the All-Access Lounge.
“Didn’t I?” by Dasha has become one of my favorite songs since hearing her live. In case you didn’t know who Dasha was, she sings the popular song “Austin (Boots Stop Working)” and has an accompanying dance from TikTok.
She took the stage in an outfit that was very reminiscent of Taylor Swift in her “Fearless” era. Dasha wore a gold sparkling dress that had little tassels on it that swung around when she was on stage.
After “Didn’t I?” Dasha quickly introduced the next song, making a joke about the popular song with the same title. She performed her song “Bye Bye Bye,” guiding the audience through waving on the words “bye bye bye,” which I found adorable.
Following this, she played a song about the small town she grew up in that knew everything about her. Titled “Talk of the Town” it was a song I found relatable as I also come from a small town! Dasha finished her set by asking the audience, “Are your boots working?” as her introduction to “Austin (Boots Stop Workin’),” where I found myself doing the dance that I choreographed for the orientation flashmob over the summer.
There were only two more artists left at this point in the day, and it was only 2pm. The event ran until 5pm and then the next one took the stage: Alex Warren, who just recently released a song with Joe Jonas, yes of the Jonas Brothers.
Warren’s set had a lot of audience interaction, another aspect of the event that I appreciated. While each artist had maybe 15-30 minutes for their set, I enjoyed that they still took the time to interact with the audience.
Warren started off with “Carry You Home,” a song that is likely for his wife Kouvr Annon.
Following this, there was a lot of audience interaction and chatting about how Warren is married because many fans were saying they want to marry him. He quickly went into “Before You Leave Me” as his second song.
Warren ended his set by making jokes about Jonas showing up (he did not), and then proceeded to say to the audience, “You’re stuck with just me.” and he performed “Burnin’ Down” as his final song. This was one I knew all the words to, thanks to my mother.
The final artist, who had arguably the longest set, was Myles Smith. The start of his set went off without a hitch, until he needed a new mic pack. Starting off with “My Home,” Smith was having fun dancing around the stage with his band before he realized that he needed a new one.
The tech crew was phenomenal and addressed the issue right away, with Smith vamping, stalling for time, on the second song, “Behind.”
Smith continued on with his high-energy set, the next song being “Nice to Meet You,” followed by “Wait for You.” Two songs that I tend to mix up the titles, but they are perfect regardless.
“Solo” and “Stargazing” were the final songs of the night. “Stargazing” was the crowd favorite, leaving the audience shouting and jumping.
All in all, this event was really fun. It was a chance to see many different artists where I both knew their music and didn’t really know them at all. I found a new appreciation for music at this event and would go again if I had the chance.