DNC executive producer says staff thought Beyoncé was going to appear
An executive producer for the Democratic National Convention has revealed that members of staff at the event had bought into the rumours that Beyoncé was set to make an appearance at last week’s event in support of Kamala Harris.
Last Thursday (August 22), rumours began spreading that Beyoncé was going to make an appearance at the final DNC event to perform ‘Freedom’ and throw her support behind Harris. However, those rumours were quickly put to bed, as a representative for Beyoncé issued a statement confirming that the singer wasn’t going to be present.
Despite Beyoncé’s absence being confirmed, DNC executive producer Ricky Kirshner has revealed that staff working at the event refused to believe she wasn’t showing up. Kirshner said to The Hollywood Reporter: “We never put out anything about Beyoncé. We denied it every time the media asked us — even though, by the way, people on my staff didn’t believe me.”
Kirshner continued: “I kept getting texts from news organizations saying, ‘When is Beyoncé coming out?’ But come on, we have the biggest star, the Democratic nominee for president. Why would we overshadow that?”
Fellow executive producer Glenn Weiss added: “This is the internet taking on a life of its own and people taking something as fact — literally to the point that people in my booth are saying, ‘Is she coming? You can tell me.’ And I would say, ‘I have no knowledge she’s coming.’ And they would say, ‘No knowledge? So there’s something to know!’ It was pretty crazy. But she wasn’t coming. In the end even TMZ [which first reported it] had to issue an apology.”
It is worth nothing that while Beyoncé has yet to publicly put her support behind Kamala Harris – or any other candidate for that matter – she has personally approved of the Harris’ use of ‘Freedom’ as the official anthem for her presidential campaign.
Harris began walking out to the song in July when she made her first public appearance since President Joe Biden announced that he would be dropping out of the 2024 presidential election and endorsing Harris to run in his place as the Democratic nominee.
She later shared her first presidential election campaign video, soundtracked by ‘Freedom’. In the clip, Harris poses the question: “What kind of country do we want to live in?” She then goes on to say: “We choose freedom.”
Earlier last week Bey had issued a cease-and-desist letter to Donald Trump’s campaign to prevent them from using the same song.
Harris has been picking up support from across the music industry since emerging as the Democrats’ candidate, including Ariana Grande, Lizzo and Olivia Rodrigo – the latter of whom highlighted the VP’s stance on reproductive rights.
Charli XCX endorsed Harris by posting: “Kamala IS brat”, a reference to her new hit album and pop culture phenomenon ‘Brat’. This led to CNN attempting to explain the ‘Brat summer’ trend to its viewers live on air.
Elsewhere at the DNC, a slew of big name musical acts were on hand to perform, including Stevie Wonder, John Legend, The Chicks, Lil Jon, Jason Isbell and Maren Morris.
The post DNC executive producer says staff thought Beyoncé was going to appear appeared first on NME.
Surej Singh
NME
