Mariah Carey, Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Cher Perform At Macy’s 4th Of July Fireworks Show: Watch

Sam Lansky | July 5, 2013 5:34 am

Oh, and what a 4th of July it was in New York City, where the annual Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular was, um, spectacular-ish. And aside from all the fireworks, there were performances from pop stars, too!

There was Taylor Swift (beamed in via satellite from Dallas, which sort of defeats the whole purpose, doesn’t it?) and the ever-on point Cher and Mariah Carey bringing back ’90 realness with a major rendition of “Hero,” and with Nick Cannon on hosting duties (ugh) and Usher at the helm with some of the pyrotechnic design (because sure?) and none of it made sense and everything was pretaped and it was all great. Happy Independence Day, everyone.

For her part, Mariah Carey gave one of those wonderful vaguely-topical-yet-non-specific inspirational speeches before launching into “Hero”: “We come together in good times and bad,” she said. “Hurricane Sandy, the tornado in Oklahoma and the bombings in Boston have all tested us recently, but we continue to open our hearts and help in extraordinary ways. As President Obama said earlier, today is a day to recognize what makes us proud to be Americans. This next song is a tribute to all the heroes who make us so proud.”

Oh, Mimi. Watch “Hero” up top, then see all the other performances below.

Mariah Carey & Miguel — “#Beautiful”

Cher — “Woman’s World”

Selena Gomez — “Come And Get It”

Selena Gomez — “Slow Down”

Tim McGraw — “Southern Girl”

Taylor Swift — “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”

Taylor Swift & Ed Sheeran — “Everything Has Changed”