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Jennifer Holliday To Not Sing At Trump’s January 19 Inauguration Concert: List Of Performers Grows [Updated]

By Paula Mooney
Published on: 13:57 PST, Jan 13, 2017

Jennifer Holliday is getting tons of responses for her decision to sing at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. Some of the threats that Jennifer is receiving has Holliday seemingly hesitant to sing at the concert prior to Inauguration Day, reports the New York Times.

Update: Holliday has decided not to sing at Trump’s inauguration concert, according to Us.

According to Newsweek, Trump’s inauguration “welcome concert” will be held on Thursday, January 19, at the Lincoln Memorial, with the time of the concert still to be determined as of this writing. The concert will include a list of performers, along with expected appearances by Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence. It wouldn’t be the first time that Holliday would be in the presence of a president. As seen in the photo above, President Clinton joined Holliday and other Broadway singers in the East Room of the White House on November 30, 1998.

Many performers have rejected the offer to perform at Trump’s inauguration. English singer Rebecca Ferguson, for example, initially said she’d only sing at Trump’s inauguration weekend festivities if she could sing “Strange Fruit,” as reported by the Inquisitr — eventually changing her mind and saying no altogether. Holliday, on the other hand, has said yes to Trump’s concert.

Jennifer saw singing at Trump’s concert as singing for the people, not necessary solely for Trump. Even though Holliday voted for Hillary Clinton and not Trump, Holliday didn’t view her decision to sing at Trump’s inauguration as a political one. Instead, Jennifer saw singing at Trump’s concert as a chance to once again be a part of history. But the backlash Holliday has gotten online caught her by surprise. Holliday said that people have told her that singing at Trump’s concert might have a negative impact on her career well after the concert is over.

“It brought a lot of threats from people already saying I’ll never work again. If that’s what America has come to, where we all hate and bully people, there’s no more freedom of speech. I know everybody hates me now, but that shows we are all just hateful people now — we don’t even want to work together. If it’s the end of everything for me, then it has to be the end of everything for me. I would hope that’s not how it ends up, but right now I would like to be a part of a welcoming part of America. If we’re only going to let Trump be the face of America, I say let’s not let him be the only face of America — someone else could stand and show a light of love or hope or forgiveness.”

Holliday went on to say what a divided country the U.S. has become — one that doesn’t represent the vision that the Obama family wanted. As reported by the New York Times, Jackie Evancho is another singer scheduled to sing at Trump’s inauguration activities, with the 16-year-old planning to sing the National Anthem on January 20. The same day the news broke about Jennifer’s plans to sing at Trump’s welcome concert, there were reports that Flo Rida had been offered $1 million to sing at Trump’s concert as well, as reported by CBS.

Along with a myriad of responses that Holliday is receiving across social media, Jennifer is also getting advice to get paid up front prior to performing. Holliday, meanwhile, wondered aloud if everyone shouldn’t instead pray for the country to prosper instead of creating divisions based on political beliefs. The comments that Jennifer has received on social networks like Facebook, however, prove that some people are letting Holliday know that her choice to sing for Trump’s concert isn’t that simple. Certain individuals are claiming that artists like Jennifer shouldn’t be able to set aside their personal beliefs too easily in order to sing at Trump’s concert.

[Featured Image by J. Scott Applewhite/AP Images]

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