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Macy’s has released their Thanksgiving Day parade lineup, and this year’s spectacle will feature 17 celebrities, including one very big name.
Cher will be closing out the parade, performing right before the season’s even bigger celebrity: Santa Claus. Launching with Jon Batiste, the 2023 parade will also include Brandy, Chicago, En Vogue, Penatonix and more.
The parade will begin 30 minutes earlier than usual, at 8:30 a.m. EST in New York. It will air on NBC and Peacock and feature more than 5,000 volunteers, 16 character balloons, 26 floats and 32 heritage and novelty balloons. There will also be more than 700 clowns, 12 marching bands and nine performance groups.
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Cher’s appearance in the parade comes just as she released her first-ever Christmas album, titled, simply “Christmas.” The album was released Oct. 20 and features 13 songs and duets with other artists, including Stevie Wonder and Michael Bublé.
While it’s Cher’s first holiday album — and her first album in five years — she has previously appeared on Christmas albums including “The Greatest Christmas Collection” in 2009, and she performed “Gift of Song” and “O Holy Night” during 1973’s “Sonny and Cher Christmas Special.”
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This year marks the 97th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The annual event has taken place every year since 1924, with 2020’s parade being transformed into a television-only event due do the COVID-19 pandemic. Santa Claus was also not at Macy’s to greet children in 2020 for the first time since 1861. The parade returned, however, for in-person crowds in 2021.
Last year’s parade concluded with Mariah Carey performing “All I Want for Christmas is You” before Santa’s arrival to usher in the holidays.
Do you watch the Macy’s parade every Thanksgiving?
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