Carrie Underwood, winner of America’s Idol season four, known for hit songs Jesus Take the Wheel ” and Before He Cheats, has announced in an Instagram post that she is to sing “America the Beautiful” at the inauguration on Monday, 20th January 2025, for the president-elect of the United States of America, Donald Trump.
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Her announcement has received backlash from a section of the public on social media after it was revealed she is set to perform. The American country singer, 41, In a statement to The Independent, said: “I love our country and am honored to have been asked to sing at the Inauguration and to be a small part of this historic event. “I am humbled to answer the call at a time when we must all come together in the spirit of unity and looking to the future.
The host of The View, Whoopi Goldberg, has thrown her support behind the American Idol star’s decision to sing at the inauguration despite being no fan of President-elect Donald Trump.
She said, “I stand behind her. If I believe I have the right to make up my mind to go perform someplace, I believe they have the same right. So, I have to support (her). It doesn’t mean I’m particularly interested in watching. I won’t be watching. But that’s me.”
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The other hosts of The View held a different opinion from that of Goldberg. Sunny Hostin supported Joy Behar in her assertion that if she were a singer, she would give a “hard no” to the performance invite and would “not normalize” Trump by singing at his inauguration.
Behar challenged Underwood’s statement by asking, “How can you claim to love your country and support and normalize a convicted felon who wants to destroy it?
However, she added that she is “not the person” to tell someone else not to perform at the inauguration because she believes “in free speech,” while Hostin agreed that singers have a “right to perform where (they) want to perform.”
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Alyssa Farah Griffin said that if people have an issue with the country singer’s decision to perform at the inauguration of the president-elect, they can “register their complaint by not downloading her songs and not going to her shows” rather than try to cancel people’s livelihoods because we don’t like their politics.