American Idol’s Carrie Underwood to Perform at Trump Inauguration Ceremony
UPDATE: Carrie Underwood has released a statement, and as I predicted below, her reasoning revolves around “bringing people together” She states, “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.”
Carrie continues, “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.”
New American Idol judge and season 4 winner, Carrie Underwood, will perform at Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration.
The country singer will perform “America the Beautiful” at the swearing in ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on January 20. News reports from Deadline and others cite a screenshot of a program posted by Matthew Foldi, editor in chief of the Washington Reporter. But now a spokesperson for the Presidential Inaugural Committee confirmed that she will be performing.
Up until now, Carrie has been careful to stay out of politics. It’s hard to imagine WHY she decided to jump in now. When she finally weighs in, she’ll probably say that it’s about bringing Americans together, blah blah blah. But although the Trump transition bangs on about how the president-elect won a huge mandate HE REALLY DID NOT! Although Trump garnered the most votes, it’s a slim margin. He didn’t even crack 50 percent of the popular vote. Although it seems the mainstream is more accepting of his upcoming administration, he remains a controversial figure.
Carrie Underwood: Disappointing a segment of her fanbase
So why is Carrie choosing to disappoint a large portion of her fan base? It’s not as if she needs the exposure. Or maybe she’s such a huge Trump MAGA fan, that she feels it’s worth alienating a slice of her fan base.
Trump’s rhetoric throughout the campaign was full of lies, misinformation and hateful rhetoric. It’s hard to believe Carrie would tacitly support his upcoming term as 47. Even if she voted for him (she probably did) what’s the upside for publicly supporting him?
She’s got plenty going on career wise! She took Katy Perry’s place on the American Idol judges panel 20 years after she won the show. She performed before the ball dropped on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. Her act from her recent Las Vegas residency will begin airing on Disney Plus at the end of the month. Seriously, no need to make people mad. No need at all.
Notably, Carrie’s husband, former hockey player Mike Fisher, has NEVER been shy about his conservative politics, even before he became an American citizen. And as far as Carrie is concerned, she has become more religious over the years. And remember when, during Covid she liked a tweet featuring ultra-right-wing provocateur Matt Walsh railing over mask mandates at a Nashville school board meeting during the height of the COVID epidemic.
Back in 2012, Carrie caught flack for publicly supporting same sex marriages. It’s hard to imagine her taking the same stance today.
Fun fact: America’s Got Talent singer Jackie Evancho sang the Star Spangled Banner for Trump’s 2017 inauguration and eventually came to regret it.
