Breaking: Andrea Bocelli pulls out of Trump inauguration

Breaking: Andrea Bocelli pulls out of Trump inauguration

main

norman lebrecht

December 20, 2016

Page Six of the New York Post – probably the most trusted showbiz source – says this morning that the Italian crooner has pulled out of the Trump inauguration under backlash pressure from fans. Bocelli met Trump twice in recent weeks to discuss the invitation.

It was Page Six that first told us that Bocelli had accepted. If we believed the first story, we’d better believe the second.

Nobody on any side is confirming or denying.

UPDATE: Now Trump denies he ever asked Bocelli to sing.

 

 

Comments

  • Olassus says:

    Why does an Inauguration need entertainment? Should be solemn.

    • John Borstlap says:

      On this occasion, it should be accompanied by a requiem.

    • Dan P. says:

      It was widely publicized in the U.S. that Trump’s people were offering to pay performers (there is usually no payment) and offering ambassadorships to managers who could get performers for the inauguration. And this was on the record from those managing the event! Things are really getting desperate in Trumpland. I just shudder to think what will happen after the inauguration.

      • Timo says:

        Your little nickers will get all knotted up.

      • dina Schrader says:

        SORRY Liberals.. but you are all liars.. just like hillary and obama.. No one was getting paid.. that is just ANOTHER LIBERAL LIE..

        • Martin Ramby says:

          Here, here Dina. All many liberals know how to do is lie, deny, deflect and destroy.

          Obama is tainting his legacy with his petty childish actions to hurt the Trump presidency at the country’s expense.

          Bush gave him a smooth transition, but Obama is too much of a petulant, spoiled, thin skinned child to afford Trump the same curtesy.

          I didn’t think Obama could sink any lower, but he did. Typical liberal fool.

        • Ray Rinfret says:

          It looks like Flo Rida is getting $1,000,000, so…

  • Robin Bermanseder says:

    Page six also stated that David Foster was involved.
    David Foster has publicly and strongly denied this.
    Either p6 is full of it, or there is more going on than meets the ire.

  • V.Lind says:

    Hey, Vlad…you’re musical…

  • CDH says:

    As far as I am concerned, this — if true, if any of it was ever true — just compounds the offence. Bad call (in my and obviously others’ view) to accept the invitation in the first place. But it’s still a free society, and it’s down to him. But to turn around and cancel it because of social pressure — didn’t Jeff Melanson get savaged for similar over La Lisitsa — hey, there’s an idea! — when at TSO? If he thought it was a good thing to do, for whatever reason, he should have stuck to his guns.

    • Sarah says:

      Was Bocelli even asked? We don’t know that, do we? And per Trump, it was Bocelli who asked HIM if he could sing. So . . . . maybe there was no pullout because there was no acceptance in the first place

      • CDH says:

        I did question if any of it was ever true. The rest of my response was predicated on the (admittedly dodgy, when it comes to Trump, premise that it could be. After watching that campaign and this appalling transition period, I ought to know better.

  • Robin Bermanseder says:

    Bocelli’s withdrawal is also being reported by dailymail.co.uk.
    Do we want a world where artists and performers are constrained by popular opinion?
    That would be a bad thing, right?

  • Evan says:

    I guess that leaves the hapless Jackie Evancho to be the ‘Entertainer in Chief’ at the Trump inauguration.
    Bocelli and Jackie Evancho both share management people in the U.S., so much of the blame for this entire public relations disaster should be directed at their management. Somebody else mentioned earlier, on another Bocellli blog about this, that Jackie Evancho’s manager was an extreme right-wing Republican and major Trump supporter. If so, that would explain this mess and why both artists should perhaps look elsewhere for guidance and career management, as they seem to be getting advice that makes them controversial and the human embodiment of their management’s political leanings.

    • Vienna calling says:

      I wish this site had a ‘like’ button.

    • Janet says:

      What happened to Ted Nugent the Hall of Fame..oh wait …nope….well Ted Nugent and clintons Eastwood could cc one in and say ….nevermind!

    • Robert K. Broudy says:

      Your comment about Jackie Evancho being “hapless” simply shows your ignorance.
      Jackie has an incomparable voice and has the backbone that the entertainment celebrities lack. She does not have to support Donald Trump to perform The National Anthem for America itself. She sings for the Office, just as she did twice for President Obama. Read about Jackie…see her on you tube…I did not vote for Mr. Trump, but
      I always support Jackie.

    • Gregory DiBenedetto says:

      As a proud first generation Italian American, I felt proud and honored that Andrea Bocelli might perform at The Inauguration. However, I am first and foremost American Over the last 25 years or so, I have amassed a large collection of Bocelli tapes, CDs and DVDs.I will now throw them into the garbage. It is disgraceful that Bocelli or his agents have such arrogance and be so insulting to the USA as to turn down the HONOR of performing at the Inauguration. If Bocelli never performs in the USA again, it will be no loss to me from this point on.

  • DESR says:

    Any current opera singers with genuine conservative leanings?

    • Will Duffay says:

      Can’t Putin pull some strings…?

    • Pianofortissimo says:

      There are surely many, but they are afraid of coming out because of a very high risk for harassment, discrimination, black-listing, and psychic torture.

      • Bruce says:

        There are lots of people in the US who consider themselves genuine conservatives and who do not support Trump.

        (The words “liberal” and “conservative” are being used in increasingly strange ways in the US. I consider myself liberal because of my do-what-you-like-as-long-as-you-don’t-hurt-anyone and we’re-all-in-this-together-so-let’s-not-be-heartless views on life. However, a friend recently told me that I’m not really a liberal: if I were, I would have no respect for anyone different than myself, and no respect for their ability to make intelligent life choices, which I, and people like me, must therefore make on their behalf and force upon them via government. That’s a definition of “liberal” that I don’t subscribe to, but I still consider myself liberal, the same way someone can consider themselves conservative even if they aren’t in favor of expelling all Muslims from the US, impeaching Obama, or imprisoning Hillary.)

        • Dan P. says:

          These labels are used more as epithets than anything else these days. Also, I don’t think a lot of conservatives (in the more traditional sense) consider Trump one of theirs. He’s really a populist. Besides, it’s hard to know if he actually believes in anything (his statements are contradictory on just about every subject) except for what will drive his audience of the moment. He does believe in himself, though, and it appears that he only wants those around him in his inner circle who will kiss his ring (and maybe something else) or fear him.

          Not to waste a good opportunity, it was reported that his oldest sons were caught trying to auction off time with them and their father for big bucks. BIG bucks. So, now that we have commodfied everything else, we are now commodifying the president too.

          • Bruce says:

            Comments about Clinton, pay-to-play, Lincoln Bedroom, etc. in 5… 4… 3…

          • Dan P. says:

            That’s what I was thinking too. But that was a big nothing. You know, one doesn’t expect a president to be a saint, but one hopes that he/she will be rational. We are now in uncharted territory.

        • Una says:

          There are a lot of Republicans who also like Trump in America (and out own Nigel Farage), otherwise he’d never have got in!

      • Holly Golightly says:

        How accurate that is; they’d be afraid of the witch hunts. ‘Conform to our thinking’, or else…..

        “We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law.” (Miller, “The Crucible”).

    • gerri says:

      Ted nuggent and kid rock would be perfect for his crowd.

  • Trust Bases says:

    Andrea Bocelli, considered one of the greatest living tenors, will play Donald Trump s Inauguration in January.

  • Gary Carpenter says:

    Doesn’t the KluKluxKlan have a male voice choir?

  • Ruben Greenberg says:

    If only Trump himself pulled out of the inauguration.

  • LK says:

    JE and AB do NOT share the same management.

  • David Osborne says:

    Where are all the Trump trolls all of a sudden? Anyway, good on him for realising his mistake, people should get off his back now. For my part, I’m having a great time stubbornly refusing to google ‘Jackie Evancho’. I still have no idea who this person is…

    • Robert Broudy says:

      Just so you know, Jackie Evancho has the most beautiful voice on this earth. She has performed on countless stages and before President Obama. I did not vote for Mr. Trump, but I so proud of Jackie for performing for the Office of the Presidency. You do not have to support Mr. Trump to appreciate the artistry of Jackie Evancho. The National Anthem IS my anthem as an American.

  • Greg Hlatky says:

    Of course, the zampolits threatening Bocelli, not for endorsing Trump but simply for singing at his inauguration, just harden the perception among sensible people that artists are hysterical and extreme. Many people voted for Trump with great reluctance, but the unhinged and violent response by the Left simply reassures them that they did the right thing.

    Perhaps, had they the least particle of introspection, progressive types might reflect as to why the Democratic candidate, with a huge amount of money collected and spent and with all the media, all the arts and entertainment industry, all the academics, all the bureaucracy, all the pundits, all the “public intellectuals,” and all the foreign leaders on her side lost to a blowhard hated by the party under whose banner he ran and who basically winged it in his whole campaign.

    Perhaps they might also think about why, after eight years under the leadership of the Smartest Man in the Universe, the Democratic party has been reduced across the US at the Federal and state level to its worst position in some 90 years, essentially a bicoastal urban archipelago that leads the country in inequality and fiscal peril. Clinton’s margin in the popular vote can be attributed entirely to California.

    But no. Ensconsed in the little bubbles that vote Democratic by margins that would embarrass Kim Jong-un, never having met or imagined anyone who voted for Trump, progressives cook up ever more lunatic schemes to shield themselves from reality, all of which have backfired and further humiliated their candidate: e.g. the recounts that add to Trump’s lead, the appeals for “Hamilton” electors who end up casting ballots for Inanimate Carbon Rod instead of Clinton. Truly it’s for those people that the term “Intellectual Yet Idiot” was invented.

    • Max Grimm says:

      Frankly, these days I find “hysterical and extreme” to sum up the political scene in in general and in a great many places; right, left and center to boot.

      • Greg Hlatky says:

        Yeah, I remember the Romney Riots of 2012.

        • Max Grimm says:

          That’s all very well and I understand that the American presidential election is an imposing event throughout the world’s media but as far as I’m aware, the terms “the political scene“, “in general” and “in a great many places” aren’t exclusively reserved for or automatically indicative of American politics/Republicans vs Democrats.

        • Sarah says:

          And you must remember as well how the GOP said that their #1 and most important priority EVER was to not let ANY legislation favored by President Obama pass. Ever. Kind of extreme, don’t you think? and then there was the only time a member of congress yelled “You Lie!” at a State of the Union address. Shall I go on?

          • Holly Golightly says:

            Didn’t stop Obama from increasing the discretionary power of the President and over-riding any opposition. 8 years of a monumental gob-fest.

          • Martin Ramby says:

            Ha! Rep. Joe Wilson was 100% correct when he called Obama a liar in 2009.

            History has proved his right.

    • Robert Holmén says:

      Donald Trump got beat by a girl in the popular vote. Bigly.

      Live with it.

      • Greg Hlatky says:

        Irrelevant. Sensible people know that we don’t have a national vote, we have 51 separate state votes so California can’t dictate the winner. Clinton lost those, bigly. Live with it.

        • NYMike says:

          This hogwash re the CA vote being Hillary’s margin is ludicrous. Have you heard of gerrymandering allowing someone in a KS empty field’s vote to be worth 20-30x what my NYC vote’s worth?? Perhaps you should bone up on the GOP’s nefarious agenda of the last 15-20 years. The rustbelt union voters who went for Herr Trump will rue the day soon enough.

          • Greg Hlatky says:

            “[T]here also were millions approved for transfer from Clinton’s campaign for use by the DNC — which, under a plan devised by Brazile to drum up urban turnout out of fear that Trump would win the popular vote while losing the electoral vote, got dumped into Chicago and New Orleans, far from anywhere that would have made a difference in the election.”

            http://tinyurl.com/htmbtxr

            Foot, meet bullet.

        • Martin Ramby says:

          Well said Greg. The Electoral College is necessary to give all states a say in the election, not just the over populated “give me something free states” like NY and California. The “fly over states” beat down the two coasts.

          The pendulum swung too far left and is now heading back toward the middle.

          The only thing I miss from NY is the theater….and food.

      • Martin Ramby says:

        California (most of Southern California is a suburb of Mexico. Then there is Oregon and Washington, huge liberal bastions, and then of course New York (not upstate) a conclave of self-absorbed liberal lemmings. That’s what got H the popular vote. I wonder how many illegals ACTUALLY voted for the liberal hand that feeds them? That’s why the Dems don’t want photo id’s as a requirement to vote and scream racism if you try to defend it.

        Take the illegal vote away and Trump got a mandate with the popular vote and the Electoral College. Bigly.

  • A sensible voice in the maelstrom says:

    It is amazing how much bullying is being tolerated by the newly indignant and loudly intolerant. I for one am disgusted by the puerile chatter on both sides, but much from the Democrat side of things in the moment. Given the seven demonstrable war zones — five initiated by the current administration and continuing under a Peace Prize president in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Syria, Somali, and cross-border drone attacks in Pakistan from Afghanistan, one would think voices such as have been heard from in this tempest in a tea pot would have something more important to say. Apparently not. While I did not vote for Mr. Trump nor for Mrs. Clinton, I remain a part of a broad landscape of American people, right and left having places in this. Some are just too loud and singing in the wrong chorus at the moment. What of the wars? One huge, long fermata lingers as little people scream their arias about singing or not singing arias, rather than raising a unified voice against the wars of America and NATO raging around this sad world.

    • laurie says:

      I assume, from your comments, the wars of Russia don’t figure in your moral calculus. Also as you did not vote for Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Trump, you clearly chose not to exercise the only power you have to make a difference in American policy. Rather odd for such a “sensible voice”…..

      • A sensible voice in the maelstrom says:

        The wars of all matter and these include many not mentioned. Being an American, I commented specifically on America’s last fifteen years of war making, accelerating into seven distinct war zones in the last several years. Many who wanted Mrs. Clinton to emerge as president fail to explain their parallel support for massive arms sales under her watch as Secretary of State, or the destabilization of many governments under her watch. As to a moral compass, I voted for Sanders and then Stein, so I in fact exercised my privilege to vote, though your conclusion that there are only two parties which matter indicated your preference or prejudice all the while leaping to condemn mine incorrectly. When presented with “either-or” I often look to see what other options and opportunities have not been presented, and wonder why. If you cheered for Mrs. Clinton through the last months, why do you support destabilizing governments and bombing children with American armaments, quite something as bad as the brutal war going on in Syria with Russia’s inclusion in it. Stein did not support war, while the Democrats simply pretended it was someone else and not them that so consistently have made war while pretending peace.

  • Seriously now.... says:

    Why not have his family provide the entertainment? They can do any/everything.

    • Steinway Fanatic says:

      Now you’re talking: Melania can do a strip-tease, Eric & Donald Jr. can do a drag routine, Ivanka & Tiffany can join forces with Pussy Riot, and little Barron can sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”.

      • Martin Ramby says:

        @Steinway

        The Trump family are a nice looking, well groomed family, much like the Kennedy’s of old……Camelot…whom the press and country idolized regardless of their personal shortcomings. It’s refreshing to see a handsome family in the WH again instead of a group of people…..FLOTUS especially….who looks like she’s smuggling two Mexicans under her skirt.

        Your eyes are a nasty shade of green.

  • Dave says:

    It is a sad state of affairs when a singer gets threatened because he will perform when certain cretins feel it is inappropriate. Quite a few of these self important snobs seem to inhabit this website, it would seem.

    • Cyril Blair says:

      On the other hand, maybe Bocelli will be thanking them in 4-8 years. Like that Vichy singer a few posts back, it’s a shame to be saddled with that kind of label. You will never be looked at the same. Perhaps many who serve in the fascist creamsicle’s administration, or do his bidding, will come to regret it. It is guaranteed to be the most corrupt administration ever – the instant he is sworn in he will be violating the Constitution in so many ways. People associated by him will be tarred forever.

      The wise are seeing the light.

      • Martin Ramby says:

        Your facts are incorrect. Trump is a Constitutionalist, he wants to support and enforce our Constitution not dissect it like President Obama did on so many occasions, i.e. attacking religious freedom, ignoring immigration laws (which weakens and threatens our national security and is a violation of the presidential oath to “preserve and protect” ) and freedom of speech to name just three. Obama also used his pen with Exevutive orders to make laws, which is not in his duties, that function belongs solely to the Legislative Branch (Congress) of our government, not the Executive Branch.

        The Daily Mail, I know all too well. My family in the U.K. all seem to have a favorable view of Obama and not so favorable of the right since that paper is so liberal in its opinions and biased way is reports US news.

        • Jaybuyer says:

          “The Daily Mail is so liberal in its opinions…” Thanks, you have made my day! And Jackie is clickbait extraordinaire

    • Una says:

      Couldn’t agree with you more … like the English Daily Mail, it soon becomes the Daily Rant full of experts on all manner of aspects of classical music! 🙂

  • Holly Golightly says:

    More and more reminiscent of the bullies in the Third Reich; naming names, having neighbours dob on one another. Where is Arthur Miller when he’s needed? These witch hunts know no parallel in the last 50 years in the USA.

  • Gerald Martin says:

    The Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy performed at the second Nixon inaugural. I don’t remember more than a shrug from the intelligentsia. (Leonard Bernstein and the National Symphony performed Haydn’s Mass in Time of War at the counter-inagural; I was there.)

    No harm in either event.

  • Marie Russell says:

    It’s a shame Andrea couldn’t sing for his friend because of media pressure

  • MOST READ TODAY: