Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters, John Legend and More to Appear at Biden Inauguration

Bruce Springsteen, the Foo Fighters, John Legend, Eva Longoria and Kerry Washington will be among the celebrities at Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

The Foo Fighters, Legend and Springsteen will give remote performances while Longoria and Washington will introduce segments of the event.

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The news follows Variety’s exclusive announcement that longtime Biden supporter Lady Gaga will sing the national anthem at the event.

Also on deck for the ceremony are Jennifer Lopez, who will perform; firefighter Andrea Hall, who will lead in the Pledge of Allegiance; and Amanda Gorman, the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate (and a Los Angeles native), who will recite a poem; an invocation will be delivered by Father Leo O’Donovan, and a benediction by Reverend Dr. Silvester Beaman, both longtime friends of the Biden family.

Additional artists booked for the Biden-Harris inaugural events have not yet been publicly revealed. The new Democratic ticket is expected to draw a starry lineup of industry supporters to participate and perform for inaugural festivities. In addition to the swearing-in ceremony, a virtual parade and other events are scheduled for live streams on Jan. 20. There’s also a primetime network special that night hosted by Tom Hanks that will feature Justin Timberlake, Demi Lovato and Ant Clemons.

While even a Bruce Springsteen tribute act pulled out of President Trump’s sparsely-attended inauguration, the man himself was among the performers for the celebration around President Obama’s 2009 ceremony, which also included Beyonce, U2, Usher, Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, Jon Bon Jovi and Pete Seeger. Trump settled for country singers Toby Keith and Lee Greenwood, ‘90s rock act 3 Doors Down and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Two days before Obama was sworn in, about 400,000 people gathered in the National Mall, which is now filled with security personnel after Trump supporters rioted and invaded the Capitol building, for “We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration.” Springsteen performed the 9/11-inspired “The Rising” with the gospel choir Joyce Garrett Singers and later joined Seeger to perform “This Land Is Your Land.”

While Springsteen was initially reluctant in 2016 to support Hillary Clinton prominently (although he did perform a concert supporting her just days before the election), and was later initially reluctant to criticize President Trump — “ I’m not driven to write any anti-Trump diatribe; that doesn’t feel necessary at the moment,” he told Variety in an October 2017 cover story — before long he caved and lambasted the president’s conduct and decisions on several occasions. He stepped up his rhetoric during his “Springsteen on Broadway” residency, calling Trump’s immigration policies “inhumane” and the presidency a “dark moment.”

And in 2020, he went in. Springsteen lent his support to the campaign early, narrating Biden’s “Hometown” advertisement aimed at swing-state voters, and in August allowed the campaign to use “The Rising” in a video that aired during the Democratic National Convention, and segments of which were reprised on several nights. On SiriusXM shortly before the election, he encouraged people to vote Trump out of office and read a poem calling the administration a “nightmare presidency.”

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