Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, and Jennifer Hudson have signed on to headline next month's “Central Park Homecoming Concert” to be held on the Park's Great Lawn. Rolling Stone reported, “Clive Davis will serve as the booker for the mega-concert, the centerpiece of a weeklong slate of celebrations marking the return of New York City following the Covid-19 pandemic.” The show will mark Simon's first Central Park performance since his solo concert there on August 15th, 1991.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said at the press conference announcing the show, “This is going to be one of the greatest Central Park concerts in history. This is something for the ages. ” The Mayor went on to joke, “(Springsteen) is beloved in New York City, in an extraordinary way, even though he happens to come from (New) Jersey. No one’s perfect.”
Although no hard dates were given to the concert or other events, The New York Times had previously reported an August 21st date for the show, with Springsteen's spot slated to include fellow New Jersey icon Patti Smith.
Not too long ago, Paul Simon looked back at his record-breaking Central Park reunion with Art Garfunkel on September 19th, 1981. Simon admitted that the show rates highly in his list of achievements: “We played then for, I think it was about a half-a-million people. It’s not the size so much, it’s that I was, like, right across the street from where I lived. That I was in my home city; and of course people came from all over, so, that would, yeah. . . certainly that’s one of the things when I think about my career, I think of that.”