Inauguration 2017: All the musical guests scheduled to perform
Donald Trump will officially take office on Friday with a bevy of musicians and performers preceding him at his official swearing-in ceremony.
The array of musical guests, however, hasn’t been easy to come by. For the welcoming celebrations scheduled for Thursday, at least one singer (Jennifer Holliday) backed down following fan backlash less than a day after the Presidential Inauguration Committee publicized her appearance at the event. And controversies have followed in the wake of other performer announcements from the committee, including some strife within the groups themselves.
Despite several musicians’ contentious responses to inauguration invites, a wide selection of popular guests will still be featured. Here’s a brief list of the performers scheduled for the events:
Welcoming celebrations on Thursday, Jan. 19:
- Toby Keith
- 3 Doors Down
- The Piano Guys
- Lee Greenwood, who also performed at the inaugurations of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush
- DJ RaviDrums
- The Frontmen of Country
- Military and local high school bands
Inauguration ceremony on Friday, Jan. 20:
- Jackie Evancho, the 16-year-old who placed second on “America’s Got Talent” in 2010, will be at the U.S. Capitol, singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the inauguration ceremony. Evancho has performed in front of President Obama and his family before, singing in 2010 at the National Christmas Tree Lighting and in 2012 at the National Prayer Breakfast.
- The Missouri State University Chorale, which accepted an invitation to perform at the inauguration in October, will sing at the ceremony. Republican Sen. Roy Blunt, the chair of the committee on inaugural ceremonies, invited the choir.
- The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is scheduled to perform at the inauguration. There have been internal divisions within the 360-member chorus over its performance and at least one member has quit over the issue. Jan Chamberlin announced she was leaving the choir in a Facebook post saying, “I only know I could never ‘throw roses to Hitler.’ And I certainly could never sing for him.”
- The Radio City Rockettes will join the inauguration lineup, despite its own internal conflicts over the performance. At least one Rockette voiced her dissent last month in an Instagram post tagged with #notmypresident. “Finding out that it has been decided for us that Rockettes will be performing at the Presidential inauguration makes me feel embarrassed and disappointed,” Phoebe Pearl wrote. Later, the company that owns the Rockettes said the dancers can sign up “voluntarily” to perform before the president-elect.