It was quite a Tuesday night for thousands of Amazon employees in Seattle as the tech giant took over CenturyLink Field for an epic evening that featured a Katy Perry concert and even a Jeff Bezos appearance.
Amazon celebrated its recent Prime Day sales extravaganza with the Post-Prime Day Concert, an annual event the company hosts for its Seattle-based employees and their plus-ones.
This year Amazon invited music superstar Katy Perry to headline the show, as previously reported by GeekWire. Also performing were Lil Nas X, the rapper behind the 2019 viral hit Old Town Road, along with up-and-comer CYN.
Hanging out with coworkers. #bepeculiar #primedayconcert #grateful pic.twitter.com/LZOvNLvLqb
— Linda Thomas (@TheNewsChick) August 21, 2019
#postprimedayconcert #bepeculiar #amazon #KatyPerry pic.twitter.com/aWIzX3MtJl
— Kbooklover: Living+Loving+Reading (@kbooklover) August 21, 2019
Amazon Prime Day Employee Party with Katy Perry #bepeculiar #amazon pic.twitter.com/jWJBejRwls
— Mark Relph (@mrelph) August 21, 2019
Bezos, fresh off a glitzy vacation, showed up on stage to help introduce Perry.
“Wooooo! How cool is this?!” Bezos yelled to the cheering crowd. “Are you guys having fun? Me, too.”
The CEO, who founded Amazon out of his Bellevue, Wash. home in 1994, continued:
“I’m just out here for a moment. I want to say thank you. It was another great Prime Day. I remember it was just a little over 20 years ago, I was driving all the packages to the post office myself. That wasn’t that long ago.
And when I look out at this crowd, I am in awe of what you guys do — in awe of what you guys do (repeated). Not just on Prime Day, but every day. The curiosity, the passion, the hard work, everything that I see when I get to work with you guys, it’s just amazing to me and it’s awe inspiring. So thank you very much.
And now enough small talk — let’s bring out Katy Perry!”
Most companies throw a pizza party for a job well done. #bepeculiar #Amazon pic.twitter.com/ki8JwCmo1x
— Zac Rogerson (@ZacRogerson) August 21, 2019
View this post on InstagramUncle Jeff himself! #bezos #postprimeday #bepeculiar It’s actually the first time I’ve seen him!
View this post on InstagramWhen your boss @jeffbezos crashes your party #postprimedayconcert #bepeculiar
Bezos, the richest person in the world with a net worth of more than $110 billion, certainly seemed to be having a good time. He was also spotted backstage posing for pictures with Perry and Lil Nas X.
Perry, the 13-time Grammy nominee and 5-time Billboard Music Awards winner, posted a photo after the show of the trio with the caption, “I’m having the PRIME of my life.” Lil Nas X, whose hit song held the top spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for a record 19 weeks, shared a photo of Bezos wearing his jacket, with the caption “i am the now the new owner of amazon and i stole katy perry’s dog.”
Bezos was also spotted watching the festivities from a suite. His girlfriend Lauren Sanchez appeared to be in the suite.
Amazon traditionally held a holiday party with a concert, in addition to a summer picnic, for its Seattle-based workforce. But it shifted to the Post-Prime Day concert event last year; as the company’s workforce has grown to more than 45,000 employees in Seattle, Amazon said it saw the need to “evolve” its events.
Past live performers at the party include Macklemore, Demi Lovato, Lorde, and DNCE.
The new event is billed as a celebration for Prime Day, the shopping bonanza Amazon created five years ago. This year it lasted two days from July 15-16 as Prime members purchased more than 175 million items, a 75 percent rise over the 100 million items sold last year.
Amazon also hosted a “Prime Day Concert” earlier this month as part of a livestream for Prime members. The performance featured Taylor Swift, along with other stars including Dua Lipa, SZA, and Becky G.
