What will hosting a $40,000-a-plate fundraiser for the President get you? An iconic
moment in history, it turns out.
Beyoncé Knowles, who helped raise $4 million for
President Obama’s reelection campaign when she hosted an event with her husband,
Jay-Z, in September, will sing the national anthem at the January 21 inauguration ceremony,
it was announced late yesterday.
Folk singer-singwriter
James Taylor will also perform “America the Beautiful,” while pop singer and
American Idol winner
Kelly Clarkson will sing “My Country, ’Tis of Thee” at the Capitol.
Taylor is also known for his outspoken support of the President—in an event late last
year at the National Press Club he described Obama as a “wonderful President,” and
has stumped for him on numerous occasions, playing five free concerts in North Carolina
during the 2008 campaign.
Clarkson’s political views, meanwhile, are best known
for a December 2011
tweet
supporting Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, although
she later stated that
she “voted for Barack” during both elections.
