Getty and Reuters/Danny Moloshok
- Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos partied backstage with Katy Perry and rapper Lil Nas during a concert for Amazon employees on Tuesday in Seattle.
- In photos, shared on Bezos and Nas’ Instagram, Bezos is seen wearing the graffiti jacket that Nas wore to perform at the concert.
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Bezos took to the stage to introduce Perry and give some background on how quickly the company has grown in the past 20 years. He also thanked employees for their hard work.
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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos spent his Tuesday evening partying with Katy Perry and Lil Nas.
Bezos, the world’s richest man, appeared in photographs alongside the two celebrities who performed at Amazon’s post-Prime Day 2019 celebratory concert, which was put on for the company’s 45,000 or so employees in Seattle.
One photograph shared on Perry’s Instagram showed the trio arm in arm, captioned with: "I’m having the PRIME of my life."
During the concert at the CenturyLink Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks, Perry performed "Never Really Over" live for the first time. "I’ve never sang this next song in public before," she said.
Bezos then slipped into a graffiti jacket that Nas wore to perform at the concert as he posed for more photos, which he and Nas shared on Instagram.
It’s not the first time that Bezos has mixed with celebrities in this month after he was pictured with model Karlie Kloss and others on a superyacht owned by billionaire David Geffen.
During the concert, Bezos took to the stage to introduce Perry. He used this moment to congratulate employees for their hard work and comment on how quickly the company has grown in the past 20 years.
"I remember it was just a little over 20 years ago, I was driving all the packages to the post office myself. That wasn’t that long ago. And when I look out at this crowd, I am in awe of what you guys do — in awe of what you guys do," he said.
"Not just on Prime Day, but every day. The curiosity, the passion, the hard work, everything that I see when I get to work with you guys, it’s just amazing to me and it’s awe-inspiring. So thank you very much."
You can watch Bezos’ speech here:
Bezos’ comments are particularly pertinent as the company has come under intense scrutiny over its treatment of its workers in recent years, specifically those in its warehouses who are crucial to making Prime Day happen.
In 2016, a journalist went undercover as a worker in one warehouse in the UK and described how workers were peeing into bottles because they feared that bathroom breaks would cause them to miss their targets. Several warehouse employees later confirmed this intense working environment to Business Insider, adding that the constant surveillance and security cameras dotted around the warehouse made employees feel like "robots."
In recent years, some employees have used Prime Day as a time to protest against the company. This year, hundreds of people took to social media to call for a boycott of Amazon during the busy sales period. They urged consumers not to shop Prime Day deals and to show solidarity with the thousands of workers who planned to protest for better pay and improved working conditions.
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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Mary Hanbury)