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Artist News
Aretha, Obama, Beyonce
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 21 January 2009
As anyone who has watched or heard the news in the last 24 hours will surely know, it was Barack Obama’s inauguration as Commander In Chief yesterday, and a number of music stars were involved in it all.
Aretha Franklin sang US anthem ‘Let Freedom Ring’ in front of the Capitol Building to an audience of millions who had all gathered to see the swearing in of the new president. She was followed by the swearing in of vice-president Joe Biden, then the performance of a piece of music by John Williams.
Elsewhere, Beyonce performed at the evening celebration of the event. After an intro from Denzel Washington, Obama made a short informal speech (beginning “First of all, how good looking is my wife?”) then he and his first lady danced alone on stage as Beyonce sang Etta James song ‘At Last’, and apparently reduced herself to tears in the process.
Presumably they were tears of happiness or whatever, but they might have been tears of frustration, as on the previous day when she reportedly refused to walk four blocks in high heels ahead of the inauguration evening concert at Washington’s Warner Theatre, meaning the Secret Service had to intervene to allow her car to return to the hotel where she and husband Jay-Z were staying, presumably to get some trainers or something.
You see, people are calling her a diva for that behaviour, but I’m not a diva, and I’ve owned shoes that I couldn’t walk four blocks in. Blame the men, it’s usually them who design them.
