Carrie Underwood will sing “America the Beautiful” at the inauguration ceremony for president-elect Donald J. Trump, a Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee spokesperson confirmed to news outlets Monday.
Axios was first to report the news that the country superstar will take part in the inaugural festivities, which take place in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, a date that coincidentally coincides with the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday. The transition committee has since further confirmed the news with Fox Digital Media.
Underwood will be accompanied in her rendition of the standard by the Armed Forces Chorus and the United States Naval Academy Glee Club.
Underwood reps did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation or comment.
Underwood is a much higher-profile star than an incoming Trump administration was able to procure for his 2017 inauguration, at a time when he was being more shunned by entertainment big-wigs and major media companies than he seems to be in 2024. At the 2017 swearing-in, “America’s Got Talent” runner-up Jackie Evancho was the biggest name on board.
A program for the inaugural event being widely circulated — but officially unconfirmed as of yet — shows Underwood singing right before Trump is sworn in. Christopher D. Machio is also listed on that image as performing an unnamed “musical selection” before JD Vance is sworn in as vice president.
News of Underwood performing immediately lit a firestorm on social media, with conservatives applauding her willingness to perform at the ceremony and some Democratic fans taking a more dim view. The singer has firmly maintained an apolitical status publicly in the past, although fans and detractors took note during the pandemic in 2021 when her account appeared to “like” a Matt Walsh anti-masking post.
“I feel like more people try to pin me places politically,” she said in a 2019 interview with the Guardian, defending keeping her views on hot-button issues private. “I try to stay far out of politics if possible, at least in public, because nobody wins. It’s crazy. Everybody tries to sum everything up and put a bow on it, like it’s black and white. And it’s not like that.”