Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez will be performing at the swearing-in for US President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on January 20, the Presidential Inaugural Committee has announced.
Gaga, 34, will perform the national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, which will be held on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol building. On The Floor singer Jennifer, 51, who endorsed Biden, and took part in a virtual chat with the president-elect during the campaign, is also on-board to give a musical performance at the event.
The ceremony will begin with an invocation from Father Leo J. O'Donovan, a longtime friend of Biden and his family, before a poetry reading by Amanda Gorman, who was named the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate in the U.S. in 2017.
Biden's inauguration will also feature a tie to the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF), a union that has long supported Biden, and was the first to endorse him in the 2020 race.
Here's the lineup:
- Invocation: Father Leo J. O’Donovan, a Jesuit Catholic priest who was Georgetown University president from 1989 to 2001.
- Pledge of Allegiance: Andrea Hall, president of International Association of Firefighters Local 3920. She's been a firefighter for more than 20 years in Fulton County, Ga., and was the department's first African American woman to be promoted to captain.
- National Anthem: Lady Gaga, one-of-a kind artist, performer, and trailblazer in beauty and fashion.
- Poetry reading: Amanda Gorman, named first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate by UrbanWord and the Library of Congress.
- Musical performance: Jennifer Lopez, one of the most influential Latin artists in the country.
- Benediction: Rev. Dr. Silvester Beaman, pastor of Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Wilmington, Del. He has known the Biden family for 30 years, and is a confidant and friend of the president-elect.
Presidential Inaugural Committee CEO Tony Allen said the participants "represent one clear picture of the grand diversity of our great nation."
"They are also committed to the President-elect and the Vice-President-elect’s steadfast vision of a new chapter in our American story in which we are an America united in overcoming the deep divisions and challenges facing our people, unifying the country, and restoring the soul of our nation."
