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About a year ago, Tom Hanks stopped the hearts of most Americans when he was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus. At the time, we had no idea about the impact the virus would soon have on our lives. But it had come for America’s dad, and that made matters extremely serious.
Thankfully, Tom fully recovered, and now, a year later, he’s making headlines again for hosting a televised party on the evening of Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration on Wednesday, January 20.
While Biden and Kamala Harris will still be sworn-in at the Capitol at noon, the event will be quite small due to COVID-19 restrictions and beefed-up security measures. The Presidential Inaugural Committee has stated that the atypical inauguration will begin with the official swearing-in of the president-elect and vice-president-elect.
There will then be a “Pass in Review” with military members, followed by a virtual parade across America in lieu of the typical parade in Washington, D.C.
The primetime television special will thus be an afterparty of sorts featuring appearances from Biden, Harris, musical guests, and more performances that have yet to be announced.
“Celebrating America” will air at 8:30 p.m. ET – you can watch the event’s 90-minute live broadcast on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon Prime Video, Microsoft Bing, NewsNOW, DirecTV, U-Verse, ABC, CBS, NBC, and MSNBC.
Host Tom Hanks will present several high-profile musical acts including Demi Lovato, Justin Timberlake, Ant Clemons and Jon Bon Jovi. More stars will likely be added to the lineup throughout the coming week.
Demi Lovato shared her excitement on Instagram, writing, “I’m SO honored to announce that I will be joining @joebiden & @kamalaharris for their special event, ‘Celebrating America.'”
The 28-year-old “I Love Me” singer has become increasingly politically active throughout her career, focusing her efforts on issues such as gun reform, mental health awareness, anti-bullying, BLM, LGBT+ rights, animal welfare, and more.
For their part, Justin Timberlake and Ant Clemons will debut a song that they wrote sometime during the past year’s lockdowns called “BETTER DAYS.”
“This past year brought a lot of frustration, grief, anger – and there were times when it was easy to feel powerless,” Timberlake posted on Instagram on January 13. “This song was our way of doing what little we could to encourage everyone to stay hopeful…and keep working towards a better, more equal future.”
Alongside a montage of the pair working on the song, he continued, “I’m very honored to announce we will be performing this song on January 20th for the Presidential Inauguration. We have a long way to go to fix, undo, and rebuild this country…but I hope now, despite the past four years, we are on our way.”
Jon Bon Jovi has not yet spoken about his performance, but he is definitely a favorite of Biden’s. The legendary 58-year-old rocked out for the president-elect’s “I Will Vote” concert on October 25, 2020. Nine weeks ago, the singer also posted a photo series of himself in the process of voting, ending with an image of himself performing in front of a Biden/Harris banner with the caption, “LET THE HEALING BEGIN.”
