Country stars joining Trump’s celebration
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s inaugural welcome concert next week will feature country star Toby Keith, singer Jennifer Holliday and actor Jon Voight, organizers announced Friday.
The names add some celebrity flavour to an inaugural lineup that so far has been noticeably short on star power, with organizers insisting that Trump himself is the celebrity in chief for this inaugural.
Also performing at Thursday’s Make America Great Again! Welcome Celebration: southern rockers 3 Doors Down, The Piano Guys, Lee Greenwood and The Frontmen of Country, featuring Tim Rushlow, Larry Stewart and Richie McDonald.
“We’re going to do something incredible,” Trump said in a tweeted video promoting the concert. “That’s going to be really fantastic.”
Trump himself will speak at the concert at the Lincoln Memorial, which organizers said “will serve as a tribute to one of our greatest attributes, the peaceful transition of partisan power.”
Holliday is best known for her Tony-winning role in Dreamgirls on Broadway. Greenwood, whose signature song is God Bless the U.S.A., has performed for past GOP presidential inaugurals.
Those set to perform at Trump’s Jan. 20 swearing-in ceremony include singer Jackie Evancho, the Radio City Rockettes and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Evancho, who has caught some criticism for agreeing to perform at the inaugural, said she hopes her performance will “bring people together.”
“I hope to just kind of make everyone forget about rivals and politics for a second and just think about America and the pretty song that I’m singing,” Evancho said in an interview to air Sunday on CBS This Morning.
The 16-year-old singer rejected the idea she was tacitly accepting Trump’s agenda or intolerance for LGBT rights by agreeing to perform. Her sister, Juliet Evancho, was born Jacob and is transgender.
Thursday’s welcome celebration is a free concert that also will feature fireworks and military bands. It will be available for live broadcast.