Beyonce will sing national anthem at Barack Obama inauguration
BY THOMAS CONNER Pop Music Critic/tconner@suntimes.com January 9, 2013 9:48PM
Beyonce, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama
Updated: February 11, 2013 7:34AM
Beyonce has some big weeks ahead.
Before her halftime performance Feb. 3 at Super Bowl XLVII, she’ll be singing the national anthem at President Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony Jan. 21 on the Capitol steps in Washington, D.C.
Also at the inauguration, per an announcement Wednesday: Kelly Clarkson will sing “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” and James Taylor will sing “America the Beautiful”.
Beyonce also performed during Obama’s first inauguration, first at the swearing-in and then singing Etta James’ “At Last” for the first dance at the Inaugural Ball.
In fact, she’s practically a White House staffer. Beyonce has visited the White House on several occasions, and she has performed at a state dinner.
Beyonce and her husband, rapper Jay-Z, hosted a $40,000-a-plate fund-raiser for Obama’s re-election campaign Sept. 19 at Jay-Z’s New York City nightclub, where the president remarked, “Beyonce could not be a better role model for my girls.”
First lady Michelle Obama also has cited Beyonce as a role model, and the two worked together on campaigns and a video for the first lady’s health and fitness projects.
