Empire Partners with Colin Cowie to Produce Stevie Wonder & Others for Quincy Jones Birthday

When the top figures in the Entertainment Industries want to throw a blowout party, they turn to unrivaled event designer Colin Cowie to design an unforgettable room and wonderfully conceived party. But when Colin Cowie needs to realize his fanciful visions, he relies upon Empire Entertainment to provide the backbone of his entertainment, technical production and talent wrangling team. Such was the case last week when television superstar Oprah Winfrey decided to throw a surprise 71st birthday party for music industry legend Quincy Jones. For this ultra exclusive event for 250 at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Colin Cowie transformed the Rodeo Ballroom into a multi-leveled vision of brown, black and purple floral arrangements. In front of a reflective black dance floor was a 40' X 28' stage upon which some of the top names in music would perform. The foyer and outside patio were similarly designed and featured an assortment of dessert stations, bars, cigar lounge areas and everywhere were vertically hung plasma monitors running a montage of a special Q71 logo that Empire created for the evening which was also reflected on custom match boxes, and napkins.

Quincy Jones was completely surprised when he arrived to find 250 of his closest friends crouching in the darkness. As soon as they yelled surprise! the DJ kicked in the music and the party started swinging. The guest list was a who's who of Hollywood and music royalty. Everyone from Barbra Streisand, Eddie Murphy, Jon Travolta and Elton John to George Lucas, Billy Crystal and Stevie Wonder crowded the dance floor. Oprah Winfrey hosted the evening and played several touching video tributes to Quincy as well as presenting an enormous chocolate piano that had been flown in earlier in the day.Guests listened to the enchanting Diana Krall perform a mellow set of music during a buffet dinner that included Joe's Stone Crab flown in from Miami and barbecued ribs fresh from Texas. After dinner Earth, Wind & Fire took the stage and brought the entire audience onto the dance floor for hits that included "Boogie Wonderland," "Sing a Song," "Let's Groove," and "Shining Star." After Earth, Wind & Fire's set ended Verdine White and others joined the rest of the guests on the dance floor as DJ Tom Finn kept people dancing until late into the night. Later in the evening, Stevie Wonder took the stage with keyboardist Greg Phillinganes for a couple of impromptu songs and sung to a beaming Quincy Jones.

For this demanding project, Empire consulted on all talent negotiations, integrated the competing needs of the various acts to work within a very small space and brought in world class sound, labor, video projection and other technical services, handled all logistical and dressing room arrangements and managed the flow of the evening with Empire co-President, J. B. Miller, personally calling the cues from the dance floor.

Empire is the leading provider of talent booking and technical services for diamond class events worldwide.