Musicians Stump for the Vote as Election Draws Near

With the election just days away, dozens of musicians are rallying to support their candidate of choice, with live performances designed to encourage constituents to get out and rock the vote. Hillary Clinton, in particular, has garnered major support from a diverse list of entertainers. On Friday in Cleveland, Jay Z and special guests — including his wife Beyoncé, Big Sean, J. Cole, and Chance the Rapper — appeared at the first of a few surprise performances billed as “Love Trumps Hate.”

Only a few musicians have publicly praised Trump — among them Ted Nugent, Kid Rock, Wayne Newton, Loretta Lynn, Gene Simmons, Aaron Carter, and Azealia Banks, although the latter two later rescinded their support. But Trump doesn’t seem to mind that most pop stars, rappers, and rock stars are #WithHer: Hours before Jay Z’s concert, the Republican presidential nominee joked at a Pennsylvania rally, “By the way, I didn’t have to bring J.Lo or Jay Z, the only way [Clinton] gets anybody. I’m here all by myself, just me — no guitar, no piano, no nothing!”

Also on Friday, Stevie Wonder played a “Get Out the Vote” show in Philadelphia in support of Clinton. On Saturday, Bon Jovi will play a show in St. Petersburg under the same banner, with Clinton’s running mate Tim Kaine scheduled to appear, and Katy Perry will play a Philadelphia concert that is likely to boast a lineup as star-studded as the one at Jay Z’s event.

On Sunday, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the Blind Boys of Alabama headline the “Jam the Vote” concert at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York; guests scheduled to appear include Arcade Fire’s Win Butler, Questlove of the Roots, Alex Ebert (Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros), Irma Thomas, Robert Randolph, Craig Finn (The Hold Steady), Eugene Hutz (Gogol Bordello), and Lee Fields. The show will be available to stream for those who vow to register to vote. Although that concert isn’t billed as a campaign event for any particular candidate, Butler criticized Trump at a recent speaking engagement, saying, “He’s a complete f—ing nightmare and a joke,” and he also spoke about this election campaign’s “fear-mongering” when Arcade Fire played last weekend at the Voodoo festival in New Orleans.

In Chicago on Monday, Chance the Rapper will hit the stage again, when his nonprofit group SocialWorks hosts a free rooftop concert in conjunction with Virgin Hotels Chicago designed to get youth to vote. Featured performers include Twin Peaks and Malcolm London.

Earlier this week, veteran singer-songwriter James Taylor, who has made more than 60 appearances in support of Clinton over the course of her campaign, appeared at a rally in Statesville, North Carolina. Taylor told the crowd why the election is so important to him: “There is only one direction that this clock runs, and that’s toward the future. We have to face our future. We have to own it and embrace it. We have to make it open and available to as many of us as possible. We have to embrace and welcome the entire population with open arms.” Taylor was joined by his wife Kim, a longtime Democrat who serves on the President’s Committee for the Arts, who got a bit more specific. “I just can’t imagine any of you would want to see a man like Donald Trump as President,” she said. “The way he speaks about women and our children and their grandchildren — we can’t go backwards. Then, we have Hillary who is so evolved as a person — so smart, so educated, and so prepared for the job. I’m really excited to be down here where you have it in your hands to make it possible.”

Meanwhile, last Thursday in Durham, North Carolina, Clinton and Bernie Sanders were joined by Pharrell Williams; the three took the stage to Pharrell’s hit “Happy” before the singer addressed the crowd of more than 5,000. “It makes me angry when people say she can’t lead our country because she’s a woman. How dare anyone question a woman’s ability. Every person on this planet was brought into this world by a woman,” Williams said to great applause.

Other artists stumping for Clinton recently have included Lady Gaga, who performed at a private event at the DNC right before Clinton officially secured the Democratic nomination; Jennifer Lopez, joined by ex-husband Marc Anthony, who introduced Clinton as “the next and first female president of the United States,” at a Oct. 29 rally in Miami; Pusha T, who joined forces with Clinton for a voter-registration contest; Barbra Streisand, who performed at a Clinton fundraiser aimed at the LGBT community in September; Mary J. Blige, who serenaded Clinton with Bruce Springsteen’s “American Skin (41 Shots)” on the Apple Music show The 411; Miley Cyrus, who tweeted an “I’m With Her” endorsement; and Paul McCartney and Jimmy Buffett, who along with Jon Bon Jovi played a Clinton fundraiser in the Hamptons in August.

On the Internet, there’s also the “30 Days, 30 Songs,” a campaign, spearheaded by author Dave Eggers, during which “artists for a Trump-free America” have been releasing one song per day since Oct. 10. The program has been so popular, it has been expanded to “30 Days, 50 Songs,” with multiple tracks dropping each day. Among those contributing tunes are Death Cab for Cutie, Aimee Mann, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, Bob Mould, Jimmy Eat World, Filthy Friends (a new combo featuring Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker and R.E.M.’s Peter Buck), and Moby. Moby also penned a scathing essay about Donald Trump for Rolling Stone this week, stating: “I think there is something seriously broken inside him where he’s an actual sociopath and on the spectrum pretty close to being a psychopath. He’s done nothing to indicate that he’s even capable of feeling empathy [for anyone] except for himself.”

Former Pink Floyd member Rogers Waters hasn’t officially endorsed Hillary Clinton, but he also expressed his harsh opinion of Trump last month at Southern California’s massive classic rock festival Desert Trip. During his performance of Floyd’s 1977 track “Pigs (Three Different Ones),” altered images of the Republican candidate — naked with a micro-penis and sagging breasts, wearing a KKK hood, displaying a Nazi salute, holding a large dildo like a riffle — ran on the video screens, and Trump’s image also appeared on a profanity-scribbled inflatable pig. As the song ended, the words “DONALD TRUMP IS A PIG” flashed on the screens in large block letters.

Admittedly, however, not all music fans appreciate such anti-Trump messaging. At Desert Trip weekend two, we witnessed a family of four hastily leaving the festival during Waters’s set, with the father flipping his middle finger towards the stage.