Macklemore. Demi Lovato. Lorde. DNCE.
Amazon has scored some big names for its annual employee celebration concert event. But this year the Seattle tech giant is taking it up a notch.
Music superstar Katy Perry will perform at CenturyLink Field in Seattle on August 20, the company confirmed with GeekWire, as Amazon pauses for a few hours to celebrate its Prime Day sales extravaganza at the Post-Prime Day Concert.
Perry has been a household name for more than a decade, racking up five Billboard Music Awards and 13 Grammy nominations. The pop star holds the Guinness World Record for most-viewed Super Bowl halftime show after her epic shark-themed performance in 2016. She ranked among the world’s highest-paid women in music last year, according to Forbes, and is an active philanthropist.
This isn’t the first deal between Perry and Amazon. Perry released an exclusive Christmas song last year on Amazon Music, the company’s music streaming platform which is reportedly growing faster than Spotify.
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.
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.