The Fan Moments That Defined This Year’s HOT 99.5 Jingle Ball
After ten years of attending the annual holiday concert, I looked at what’s changed for fans, and what hasn’t.
The year is 2015, and I’m in trouble.
My parents come into my bedroom to tell me my ninth-grade English teacher emailed them that I’ve been falling behind on our novel reading. They tell me to open my copy of A Raisin in the Sun, and prove to them that I’m as far into the book as I’m supposed to be. I pull back the cover, and two tickets to Hot 99.5’s Jingle Ball fall out.
I react like any normal 14-year-old girl whose parents have just surprised her with concert tickets two days before her birthday. Picture lots of screaming, lots of crying, and me telling my parents they are the absolute best two people on planet Earth.
Demi Lovato, Shawn Mendes, 5 Seconds of Summer, Alessia Cara and many more graced the stage that night. I had the time of my life. Every year after that, Jingle Ball became tradition.
The lineups aren’t always the best, but the concert always falls the week of my birthday (last year it was on the actual day), so it’s become a staple for me.
It’s been ten years since I attended my first ever Jingle Ball show, and on Dec. 16, I walked into Capital One Arena for what would be another night filled with pop hits, holiday lights and a whole lot of fan love.
Jingle Ball is iHeartRadio’s annual holiday concert series, a one-night, multi-artist showcase designed to reflect the year in pop radio. Initially hosted by KIIS-FM in Los Angeles, it began in 1995 and quickly expanded to an entire national tour.
These shows regularly sold out when I was in middle school, and they’re still selling out today. But in recent years, the formula has shifted. More often than not, the lineup now includes one or two artists clearly meant to excite older audiences alongside the current set of pop favorites.
This year, that role belonged to Nelly, who closed the show after performances by Conan Gray and Laufey. The transition was jarring in the best way — like the entire arena flipped upside down, and suddenly the adults were the loudest in the room.
That’s just one way that radio station concerts like Jingle Ball exist in a category of their own. One minute you could be hearing a rapper, the next it’s a DJ set, then a teen heartthrob, followed by an artist your millennial cousin came for. You don’t really get that kind of genre whiplash anywhere else unless you’re at a full-blown music festival.
It’s a classic element of the Jingle Ball formula, but lately, the gaps between artists on the lineup have become more noticeable. At the first bunch of Jingle Ball shows I attended, the lineups felt more intentionally curated — like every artist had earned their spot because you’d spent the year hearing one or more of their songs on the radio. Most years, I could sing along to every set.
Now, the mix feels like a reflection of where pop culture is right now. With the decline of a single musical monoculture and the rise of TikTok-driven, individualized listening habits, Jingle Ball has evolved into a night that tries to capture everything at once.
This year’s DC lineup leaned fully into that approach. The full set included performances by Olivia Dean, Jelly Roll, Monsta X, Alex Warren, Shinedown, Myles Smith, Zara Larsson, AJR, Conan Gray, Laufey and Nelly.
It was the most packed setlist we’ve had in D.C. in several years, closer to the larger Jingle Balls seen in LA and New York annually, which meant faster transitions and shorter sets. Great for variety, but tougher for fans hoping for longer moments with the artists they loved most. Most sets landed around the 20-minute mark, but the show stretched close to four hours. On a weeknight, the crowd began to thin toward the end, even before Nelly’s final song.
But if the lineup felt like it was trying to be everything at once, the fans made it clear what actually mattered.
Long before the show kicked off, it was pretty clear whose fans packed the house. Walking through Capital One Arena’s concourse, I counted at least a dozen fans in pajamas for Conan Gray and spotted countless sweatshirts bearing Alex Warren’s name. Some fans leaned fully into the holiday spirit, rocking Christmas-themed outfits with festive accessories. I even spotted someone in a full Christmas tree costume.
Once the show started, it became obvious that Olivia Dean, Laufey and Zara Larsson also pulled some of the night’s biggest crowds.
Larsson, in particular, has had a standout year. While some younger fans may be discovering her music for the first time through TikTok after her 2017 hit “Symphony” resurfaced on the app, the Swedish singer has been a pop mainstay for nearly a decade, with radio hits stretching back to the mid-2010s. Her recent viral moment has brought renewed U.S. attention, but Larsson has never stopped releasing music or selling out crowds — especially across Europe, where her success has remained consistent.
Seeing her on the Jingle Ball lineup felt full-circle. She was one of my favorite artists in high school, and definitely the kind who could have easily fit into a 2016 or 2017 Jingle Ball roster. Watching a new generation embrace her now feels like a long-overdue recognition.
The crowd absolutely lit up for her set, which also doubled as a birthday celebration as Larsson turned 28 that day. Her performance quickly became one of the most energized moments of the night.
Midway through her set, Larsson paused the music and scanned the crowd, setting up a moment fans have come to hope for. At each stop on her tour, the singer selects a fan to join her onstage and dance along to the chorus of “Lush Life.” The nightly moment has become a highlight of her shows, with confident fan performances often going viral online.
That night, the moment belonged to Grace.
“At first, I was in shock,” Grace said. “I remember thinking, ‘Is there another girl in a red top?’ Then I realized she was looking right at me, so I went toward the stage.”
Grace had hoped it might happen. On the way to the show, she told her sister she wanted to be the “Lush Life girl.” Once Larsson’s set began, she assumed someone else had already been chosen.
“When she stopped the song and was walking in my direction, talking about bringing someone onstage with her, my body just took over,” Grace said. “I figured, why not show her I can do the dance? So I did.”
Moments later, Grace was onstage. “First Zara gave me a hug, then I looked out and saw 20,000 people,” she said. “I was in so much shock that I messed up the dance. I did far from my best, but all that matters is that I was there with Zara, having the time of my life.”
For Grace, the moment carried deeper meaning. “It meant so much — something I will never forget,” she said. “I’ve been listening to Zara since I was 10, and Midnight Sun has been on repeat since its release. When I hugged Zara, it confirmed something I had assumed long ago, that she is a genuine and kind person.”
The onstage exchange has since sparked a broader TikTok trend, and at Jingle Ball, the energy extended far beyond a single fan.
“Even if you didn’t get picked to do the dance onstage, I want you to do the dance with us,” Larsson told the crowd.
And of course, the audience joined in. The dance is just that much fun.
Another one of the biggest fandom moments of the night didn’t even involve an artist onstage. Midway through the show, the program paused for a sing-along dedicated to K-Pop Demon Hunters — the massive Netflix hit that’s become the streamer’s most-watched animated film of all time. The movie’s fictional girl group, HUNTR/X, has quickly become a pop culture phenomenon.
It’s a unique moment, considering its not common for a song created for an animated film to become a Top 40 radio hit, let alone one performed by a fictional group.
On the drive to Capital One Arena, I heard “Golden” play at least three times on HOT 99.5. But inside the arena, the song took on a different life. The hosts played a countdown, and fans immediately jumped to their feet, ready to scream every word.
The lyrics appeared on the screens, but the crowd didn’t even need them.
The moment highlighted in real time just how much the film, and its music, has resonated, turning a brief 10-minute segment in the show into one of the loudest, most unified fan moments of the night.
Of course, not every highlight could be traced back to a specific fandom. During Shinedown’s set, the band asked the crowd to turn on their phone lights, and for a few minutes, the entire arena glowed together. It was a simple request, but it worked and created a beautiful moment where it didn’t matter who you came to see or whether you even knew the song. Everyone was there to enjoy the music, together.
By the end of the Nelly’s set, the show ran long, the crowd had slightly thinned out, and people began filtering toward the exits. Then, just as it has every year I’ve gone, the lights came up and Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” filled the arena.
Something about that moment always feels extra special, like a little easter egg to remind you that the night is tradition. That no matter who’s there or what happens throughout the night — it will always end the same way.
Ten years after I first found Jingle Ball tickets tucked inside a school book, the ending still feels the same.
For me, Jingle Ball always been more than just a concert. It’s the perfect holiday tradition. A celebration of another year of pop (and rap, and rock, and whatever else finds its way on the lineup). Another birthday. And most of all, it’s a reminder that even as the artists change, the fans remain the constant.
For one night each December, fandoms of all kinds come together to celebrate the season, and that, more than anything, is why I keep coming back.
From the Crowd is Fangirl Forward’s first-person fan reporting series, documenting what it feels like to experience pop culture in real time — from concerts and festivals to premieres, theme parks, and other fan spaces.