MOBILE, Ala. — You’re not crazy. CeeLo Green is coming to downtown Mobile.
The five-time Grammy winner will headline MoonPie Over Mobile on New Year’s Eve, taking the main stage in Mardi Gras Park ahead of the midnight MoonPie drop that closes out the year in the Port City.
Honorary MoonPie Over Mobile Chairman Fred Richardson — the former city councilman better known around town as Mr. MoonPie — made the announcement Tuesday morning during the regular Mobile City Council meeting.
“Grab your seatbelt because you’re going to have to buckle yourself in because he’s coming with it,” Richardson said.
The Lineup and the Schedule
Green will not be alone on the bill. Mobile vocalist Symone French, a city native, opens the night, and the Jukebox Brass Band is also part of the lineup.
The running order for the main stage:
- 9:30 p.m. — Symone French takes the stage
- 11 p.m. — CeeLo Green performs
- Midnight — The MoonPie drop and the countdown to 2027
The drop itself is the piece of the evening that has become Mobile’s signature. A 12-foot-tall lighted mechanical MoonPie descends from the 34-story RSA Trustmark building at the stroke of midnight — a downtown skyline stunt that has grown into the city’s answer to the ball drop in Times Square, and one built entirely around a snack food with deep Mardi Gras roots on the Gulf Coast.
The full event runs well beyond the music. MoonPie Over Mobile’s annual program includes entertainment throughout the day and the world’s largest MoonPie, a fixture of the celebration since the event began.
‘We’re Going to Pack Out the Streets and the Hotels’
Richardson framed the booking as part of a broader pitch for downtown Mobile as a destination on the last night of the year.
“Events Mobile is promising two things: We’re going to pack out the streets and the hotels, and everybody is going to have fun,” Richardson said. “Fun is in our DNA because we were born to celebrate. Come join the fun New Year’s Eve in downtown Mobile.”
That second promise — the hotels — is the part with a budget attached to it. A New Year’s Eve headliner with national name recognition is a lodging play as much as an entertainment one. Visitors who drive in for an evening concert go home the same night. Visitors who book a room generate lodging tax, spend money at restaurants before the show and at breakfast the next morning, and register in the tourism numbers the city reports.
The Council Weighs In
District 1 Councilman Cory Penn praised the organizers for landing Green, describing him as “a legendary artist” and encouraging residents to come out for the concert and the rest of the day’s festivities.
Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis said he was looking forward to the performance, and made a point of reaching past Green’s most recent television fame to the song that made him a household name.
“I feel like lately most of his fame has been from The Voice, which was cool, but do you remember when ‘Crazy’ came out? That was like the most popular song on earth when it came out. I can still sing a few bars,” Cheriogotis said. “I hope it attracts people from outside our city to come check us out.”
Speaking to reporters later, the mayor returned to the same theme.
“I hope it continues to bring attention, notoriety, you know, more people,” Cheriogotis said. “I hope that so much of what we do as a city, I hope it attracts people from outside of our city to come check us out, see what Downtown Mobile, see what Mobile as a whole has to offer.”
Who CeeLo Green Is
Green has had, in effect, three distinct rounds of national fame, and which one a listener remembers tends to depend on when they were paying attention.
He first reached a wide audience as a member of Goodie Mob, the Atlanta rap group that helped define Southern hip-hop in the mid-1990s. He then reached a far larger one as half of Gnarls Barkley, whose 2006 single “Crazy” became one of the defining songs of its decade. His solo career produced “Forget You,” the radio version of a 2010 single that earned him another round of Grammy recognition, along with “Bright Lights Bigger City.”
The third round came on television. Green served as a judge and coach on NBC’s “The Voice” for two years, which introduced him to an audience that may never have bought one of his records.
He has won five Grammy Awards across that span.
A Return to a City Where a Show Was Once Canceled
Green’s booking carries some history in Mobile.
He was scheduled to perform at the BayFest Music Festival in October 2014, but that concert was canceled over posts he made on social media. The posts followed his no-contest plea to a felony charge in Los Angeles County alleging he had drugged a woman in 2012.
On the social platform then known as Twitter, Green wrote: “If someone is passed out, they’re not even ‘with’ you consciously, so ‘with’ implies consent.” He also posted: “Women who have really been raped remember!”
Green later apologized for those comments and others. He returned to Mobile in 2016 for a performance at Soul Kitchen on Dauphin Street.
What Residents Are Saying
Reaction around Mobile in the hours after the announcement ran warm, and several residents said the name alone was enough to change their plans for the evening.
“We play him at work all the time, and I just like to dance around. I love CeeLo Green,” Mobile resident Holly Moore said.
“I think that’s such a great choice for this town. I think a lot of people are gonna be excited across the generations for sure,” said Hadley Moore.
Jason Graddy said his history with Green’s music goes back further than most.
“I was kind of excited to see that because I’ve been a fan of CeeLo since he was a member of Goodie Mob,” Graddy said. “Yeah, I’ve listened to CeeLo for a long time.”
Tressler Laffiette had praise for both acts on the bill.
“I think those are great choices for the MoonPie drop,” Laffiette said. “CeeLo is very well known, and the other artist, I think will be a great addition to what we have going on here.”
Laffiette also offered the endorsement organizers are probably most interested in — the one from someone who does not normally come.
“I normally do not go,” Laffiette said. “If I did, I would come to see especially CeeLo Green.”
The Moores said they might make the trip downtown this year. “Yes!” they said. “We might need to do that.”
Graddy’s calendar has already cleared itself. “I’m actually off work that week so I’ll be here,” he said.
As for what people want to hear, the answers split about evenly between “Forget You” and “Crazy.”
Why the Booking Matters to Downtown
MoonPie Over Mobile has spent close to two decades building an identity around a single, unlikely object. The event works because it is specific: no other city drops a MoonPie, and the snack cake’s association with Mardi Gras throws in Mobile — where Carnival celebrations predate those in New Orleans — gives the gimmick a genuine local foundation rather than a borrowed one.
What a national headliner adds is reach. A regional crowd will come downtown for the MoonPie regardless. The question organizers are testing is whether a Grammy-winning name pulls people in from outside the metro area who would otherwise spend the evening somewhere closer to home — and whether those visitors book a room while they are here.
More details about MoonPie Over Mobile’s full day of programming are expected as the event approaches.