Chances are he'll be singing for Kamala Harris at some point.
In January 2013, she performed the national anthem at President Obama’s second inauguration; in November 2016, she sang “Formation” at a last-minute rally for Hillary Clinton. And she has already blessed Harris’ use of her song “Freedom” as her 2024 campaign anthem (and sent Donald Trump a cease-and-desist order for using the same tune in a social media video).
Harris even took the stage to listen to a recording of “Freedom” at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday, shortly before accepting her party’s nomination for president.
But despite increasingly enthusiastic promises circulating online in the lead-up (even from gossip pundits TMZ, who are rarely wrong), the one and only Beyoncé did not appear in person to perform at Chicago's United Center.
At 7:01 p.m. PT — two and a bit hours after TMZ published an exclusive claiming the pop superstar would appear at the convention — the Hollywood Reporter quoted Beyoncé’s rep as saying the singer “was never scheduled to be there” and that the “report of a performance is false.”
Within minutes, disappointment flooded social media, leaving one feeling bad for the pop star who… had appeared in Chicago.
Taking the stage with her 13-year-old daughter, Willow, Pink sang a moving acoustic version of her song “What About Us,” which is one of those clever pop tunes that can speak to a broken romantic relationship or (if you squint a little) a nation of people demanding more from their leaders.
“What about us?” Pink and her daughter sang, accompanied by an acoustic guitarist and three backing singers. “What about all the times you said you had the answers?”
As Willow performed a verse alone, Pink slid her right arm behind her daughter's back as if to steady her against the crowd of thousands: a celebrity on a political mission, yes, but also a mother determined to protect her daughter.
But when CNN cameras panned to the audience inside the United Center, people seemed apathetic, as if Pink were simply an opening act to be endured before the promised main event.
And who could blame them?
Beyoncé—oh, did you think I was referring to the vice president?—is arguably the most exciting live performer of her generation: a powerful woman, vocally and physically gifted, capable of lighting up a room and burning it down in just a few minutes.
So what are we to conclude from the fact that she didn't show up?
If one is inclined to give Democrats the benefit of the doubt, one could say that the DNC was seeking to avoid upstaging Harris on her big night, that the party believed enough in her message to trust that viewers would care more about her than the celebrity draws she attracted.
To be clear, Pink is a major pop figure, a reliable live performer who fills stadiums year after year (as she did in October at SoFi Stadium and will likely do again next month at Dodger Stadium). But she is not an object of parasocial obsession like Beyoncé or Taylor Swift, to name another music megastar who defied rumors that she might appear Thursday night.
In hiring Pink — as well as the Chicks, who sang a charming (if rather overly sing-songy) “Star-Spangled Banner” to open the evening’s event — the DNC seemed to be putting its faith in the old-fashioned idea that music can serve as a kind of neon light to draw interest to the real issue at hand.
But that’s not how the highest-level pop fandom works today, when blind obedience to one’s chosen icon trumps all other considerations. And by allowing speculation about Beyoncé and Swift to run wild, Democrats have demonstrated a crucial misunderstanding of the way music operates in the lives of the voters they hope to target.
Who started the rumors that Beyoncé would perform Thursday night? Who refused to debunk them before they took over the true narrative of the Democratic National Convention? (After the convention ended, TMZ paraphrased the lyrics to Bey’s “Texas Hold ‘Em” on X: “We gotta lay our cards down, lay them down, lay them down…we were wrong this time.”)
Like I said, Beyoncé will probably be singing for Harris before Election Day. Hopefully, when that actually happens, you won't feel much closer to understanding how people are getting sucked into QAnon.
