Fridae

On Friday night, Nokia brought Times Square to a standstill to introduce their new Lumia 900 phone with a very special performance by Nicki Minaj. Nokia invited me to be a part of the festivities and watch Minaj's performance from upclose. The company had positioned a big blue blox with a massive countdown timer on Times Square earlier in the week, and had teased that something very special would go down at 7:30PM on Friday night without any more detail.

Right at 7:30PM on Friday, Nokia took control of nine of the square's famous electronic screens to ensure the entire area was immersed in light and music from every direction for a very special surprise that turned out to be Nicki Minaj. 

She performed a medley of tracks from her new album "Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded" plus a little bit of that oh-so catchy "Superbass." Minaj spoke to the crowd, "It's so great to perform my songs at Times Square in my hometown" and thanked Nokia for the opportunity. Combining commercial appeal with a bold attitude, Nokia could not have picked a better star to introduce the new Lumia handset. 

Being in the crowd just feet away from Minaj's performance, it was a magnificent site to be at Times Square and see all its billboards turn Nokia blue for the occasion. It was a large undertaking that was put together by some of Hollywood's leading visual artists who worked for more than 5,000 hours, day and night for more than three weeks, to create the hundreds of jaw-dropping effects that were used on the large screens. 

All of the electronic screens were controlled from a mobile server that was fed by eight miles of cable spread over four square blocks of the city. The ground-breaking visual event, to launch the Nokia Lumia 900 in North America, was choreographed to an exclusive Nokia Lumia remix of Nicki Minaj's "Starships" performed live by DJ and producer Doorly. Check out a very cool compilation of the event that is set to this brand-new remix to get an idea for the big Times Square happening.