Tuesday, January 13, 2009
President-elect
Barack Obama will have plenty of company this Sunday (1/18) in
Washington, D.C., as rock’s power elite will take part in a historic concert,
We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial, which will be televised live on
HBO.
Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce, Bono and more than a dozen other music stars will perform at the opening celebration at Washington D.C.'s Lincoln Memorial. The free event is open to the public.
Nineteen artists from across genres, including Mary J. Blige, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, John Legend, John Mellencamp, Usher, Shakira, James Taylor, will.i.am and Stevie Wonder, are also scheduled to perform.
Queen Latifah, along with
Jamie Foxx,
Martin Luther King III and
Denzel Washington, will give historical readings at the event.
The opening celebration kicks off a four-day schedule of Inaugural events that will include 10 official Inaugural Balls, as well as an Inauguration-Day-eve youth concert at the
Verizon Center.
These events include the
Beastie Boys and Sheryl Crow headlining a "Hey, America Feels Kinda Cool Again" event on Jan. 19 at the 9:30 club;
War and
Marc Anthony appearing at the Latino Inaugural Gala at Union Station on Jan. 18;
Jay-Z at the Warner Theatre Jan. 19;
Bela Fleck and
Wynton Marsalis performing at
CNN's Inaugural event on Jan. 19 at the Kennedy Center and
MTV's Youth Inaugural Ball,
Be the Change, on Jan. 20.