New Delhi: Cyndi Lauper will perform beneath New York’s Tribute in Light on Friday to mark 25 years of the 9/11 terror attacks.
Her performance will close the Tribute in Light: Live from Lower Manhattan, the first national live broadcast of the annual installation. The event will take place in addition to the two blue beams, evoking the World Trade Centre’s Twin Towers, that are projected into the sky from Lower Manhattan every year, as drones form an outline of the fallen buildings.
Lauper, who was born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens, recalled being outside New York City on the morning of the attacks, trying to return to her family.
“It’s hard to believe that it’s been 25 years. Like so many of us, I feel like it was just yesterday,” she said.
“I was outside the city that morning and desperate to get back to my family, a luxury that, sadly, a lot of people were not afforded,” Lauper added.
The singer further said that she was honoured to perform for those who were killed, their families and friends, and New York City. The song she will perform has not been announced yet.
Country singer Lainey Wilson and John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting will also perform during the one-hour programme. With David Muir, Robin Roberts and Diane Sawyer will host the tribute.
The broadcast, planned for the 25th anniversary, marks the first time the Tribute in Light will be televised live across the United States. It will begin at 8 pm Eastern Time on 11 September, or 5.30 am in India on 12 September.
Earlier in the day, relatives of the victims will gather at the 9/11 Memorial Plaza to read the names of the 2,983 people killed in the 2001 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing.
The Tribute in Light was first displayed six months after the attacks and has returned every year since. It remains illuminated from dusk until dawn. Buildings and landmarks across New York and elsewhere in the United States will also be lit in blue to commemorate the day.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)