Just days after it was announced that Jennifer Holliday would be performing at the Make America Great Again! concert welcoming people to the inauguration, the singer has backed out from the event. Holliday cited backlash from her LGBT fans as for why she will no longer be partaking in the festivities.
Holliday an open letter to her LGBT fans, apologizing for agreeing to sing at the show. She said that she's a "bi-partisan songbird" and has sung for all of the presidents from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush, and thought that singing at this show would be a "healing and unifying force" for the country. Instead, people took her agreeing to perform as a sign that she was a fan of the president-elect, which she is not.
The full text of the letter, which was exclusively sent to TheWrap:
TO MY BELOVED LGBT COMMUNITY:
Please allow me this opportunity to speak to you directly and to explain why I originally made my decision to perform at the inauguration which was what I had thought would be my simply keeping in my tradition of being a “bi-partisan songbird” having sung for Presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush.
I was asked to sing a song for what was presented to me as the “Welcome Concert For The People”– in my mind I was reflecting on the past times of being asked to sing for presidents and I only focused on the phrase “For The People”… I thought, For America!
I was honestly just thinking that I wanted my voice to be a healing and unifying force for hope through music to help our deeply polarized country… Regretfully, I did not take into consideration that my performing for the concert would actually instead be taken as a political act against my own personal beliefs and be mistaken for support of Donald Trump and Mike Pence.
In light of the information pointed out to me via the Daily Beast article on yesterday, my only choice must now be to stand with the LGBT Community and to state unequivocally that I WILL NOT PERFORM FOR THE WELCOME CONCERT OR FOR ANY OF THE INAUGURATION FESTIVITIES!
I sincerely apologize for my lapse of judgement, for being uneducated on the issues that affect every American at this crucial time in history and for causing such dismay and heartbreak to my fans.
Please know that I HEAR YOU and I feel your pain. The LGBT Community was mostly responsible for birthing my career and I am deeply indebted to you… You have loved me faithfully and unconditionally and for so many years you provided me with work even though my star had long since faded.
Thank you for communicating with me, I had no idea that I still meant so much to all of you.
Thank you for your posted comments both the good supportive ones as well as the ugly hurtful ones.
With LOVE & Appreciation,
JENNIFER HOLLIDAY
“The Original DreamGirl”
As of now, Jackie Evancho, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Rockettes, Three Doors Down, and Lee Greenwood are all scheduled to perform at the inauguration.
Honestly, this is such a shame. Holliday's voice is beautiful, and we'd all be better off from having heard her sing. She could have been a healing force for our incredibly polarized nation, but now we have nothing, which is sad.
