Never mind! Beyoncé and Taylor Swift weren’t at the DNC after all : NPR

The NPR Community shall be reporting stay from Chicago all through the week bringing you the newest on the Democratic Nationwide Conference.

Heading into the ultimate evening of the 2024 Democratic Nationwide Conference, rumors swirled about high-profile, unannounced musical visitors — which, on condition that Wednesday’s performers included Stevie Surprise and John Legend, helped create sky-high viewers expectations.

The visitors who had been introduced — particularly, The Chicks and Pink — introduced loads of star energy of their very own. However they weren’t joined by Beyoncé or Taylor Swift, as a broad swath of breathless social-media hypothesis predicted however may by no means fairly verify.

As an alternative, the particular, beforehand unannounced visitor was … no one. The evening’s headliner, Vice President Harris, had the highlight to herself — which can have been the purpose all alongside.

In fact, there’s nonetheless time for high-profile musical endorsements to make themselves heard within the days and weeks to return. And Thursday evening’s festivities had been punctuated with musical moments.

The Chicks kicked off Thursday’s prime-time programming with an a cappella rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner,” during which the nation superstars — whose sophisticated historical past has intersected with politics for many years — carried out in melodically formidable three-part concord. The efficiency hit a couple of tough spots, pitch-wise, however soared throughout the largest notes.

Throughout the hour, Pink took the stage for a rousing, just about note-perfect rendition of her 2017 protest anthem “What About Us.” Joined by a guitarist and 4 backing singers, together with her 13-year-old daughter Willow Sage Hart, Pink stayed thematically on-message, because the group sang the music’s refrain — “What about us? / What about all of the instances you mentioned you had the solutions?” — in unison.

However so far as stay music in prime time was involved, that was it. Speeches, balloon drops, the complete run of Beyoncé’s 2016 hit “Freedom” over the loudspeakers, celebrities within the crowd, misty-eyed members of the family … the night had the whole lot a typical political conference guarantees. If Beyoncé and Taylor Swift are to enter our nationwide dialog in individual, they’ve bought 74 extra days to do it.