50 Years of Thinking Different: Apple Kicks Off Golden Jubilee With a Surprise
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On Thursday, Apple officially announced plans to commemorate its 50th anniversary, although it remained somewhat vague on what that would entail. Other than a rare open letter from CEO Tim Cook, the initial announcement gave us no clues as to whether we could expect a big public celebration or something more muted.
The good news is that we didn’t have to wait too long to find out. The very next day — Friday, March 13 — Apple kicked off its 50th Anniversary Celebrations with a surprise Alicia Keys concert at the Grand Central Terminal Apple Store. Activity at the store the day before hinted that something was going on, and the store was closed for business on Friday, but nobody outside of Apple was quite sure why.
Even after Tim Cook and several other senior executives showed up with some special invited guests in tow, including select members of the media, creators, and YouTubers, it wasn’t clear exactly what was going to happen until Keys took the stage to perform. MacRumors reported from the private concert as it happened, but it wasn’t until several hours after the event, in an almost unprecedented late-night newsroom post, that Apple officially announced it — along with its plans for more global celebrations.
On March 13, Apple kicked off celebrations for its 50th anniversary with a special performance by 17-time Grammy Award-winning artist and producer Alicia Keys at Apple Grand Central in New York City. Keys delivered an incredible set of her timeless songs from the venue’s iconic steps. iPhone 17 Pro brought the energy and intimacy of the event to life.
The event was technically a private, invite-only concert, but the location is in one of the most highly-trafficked areas in New York City, and anyone passing through would have heard the concert, and many gathered outside the store to catch whatever parts of the performance they could.
The choice of Alicia Keys to kick things off was also a rather deliberate choice to commemorate Apple’s 20+ years in the digital music. Keys has been working with Apple since the very start, joining Steve Jobs in London for the European launch of the iTunes Music Store in 2004.
Since then, Keys has been prominently featured by Apple, both on the iTunes Store and in iPod and other music-related promotions. She was also one of the first artists to release her catalog in Spatial Audio when Apple launched Dolby Atmos and Lossless Support in 2021, and in 2024 she joined partnered with Apple to create the immersive Alicia Keys: Rehearsal Room for the Vision Pro.
Apple will officially mark its 50th anniversary on April 1, 2026, but the Grand Central Terminal concert shows it’s getting started early, and it’s merely the first in what Apple promises will be a series of similar events held around the world:
Throughout the month, the company is commemorating the milestone around the world. Each gathering highlights human creativity and ingenuity in action, and showcases the remarkable things people can do when they have the right Apple products in their hands.
However, it’s also being quite coy, with no details on what to expect, or even where these events will be held. Some of the spots should be easy to predict, but Apple is also likely to toss in a few surprises. All it’s saying for now is to “Stay tuned for updates.”
