Here in Times Square is a concert television special featuring American singer-songwriter Alicia Keys.
Q-Tip, Nas, Questlove, John Mayer made an appearance and Jay Z joined Keys for a performance of "Empire State of Mind" (2009).
In late September 2016, it was revealed that Keys was to perform a concert in New York City, but the date and the location were unknown.
[11] Q-Tip entered the stage and the two began mixing old hip-hop songs over a beat and piano, and Keys continued to sing "She Don't Really Care".
She covered the Bob Marley song "War" (1976) and stated "Our brothers and sisters are being shot in cold blood for doing nothing.
[10] "Empire State of Mind" (2009) was the second to last song of the show, which began with a rendition of Keys' own version "Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down" (2010), but soon transitioned to the original song, as Jay-Z emerged from the back of the stage as his verse began.
[15] She told the audience "this ignorant, racist, jackass, whose name rhymes “Scump” has to nerve to talk about grabbing pussy?
[12] Nerisha Penrose form Billboard wrote that "Keys delivered a captivating hour-and-a-half-long show that also served as a loving tribute to hip-hop history, right near the heart of its birthplace".
[10] Rahcaell Davis from Essence wrote that Keys "brought out a handful of top-notch musical guests" and that "each artist on the bill lit up the stage and had the crowd in an uproar".
[15] Sasha Geffen from MTV News commented that "Empire State of Mind" performance "doesn't really get a better venue than smack in the middle of Manhattan".
[17] Mic wrote that "Keys put together a star-studded show" and praised Nas' and Jay-Z¨s appearance, calling it "the biggest, most unexpected, most iconic moment of the night".
[18] Raisa Bruner from Time wrote that Keys and Jay Z gave an "electrifying performance" of "Empire State of Mind".