Jennifer Holliday Cancels Trump Inauguration Concert; Writes Letter To LGBT Fans [FULL TEXT]

Jennifer Holliday canceled her appearance at Donald Trump’s inauguration event next week, calling her decision to perform a “lapse of judgement.”

On Saturday morning Holliday released a letter addressed to the LGBT community announcing that she will no longer be performing at the inauguration concert.

Holliday, considered a longtime LGBT ally, explained that she changed her mind after reading a Friday Daily Beast story titled, “Jennifer Holliday Will Perform at Trump’s Inauguration, Which Is Heartbreaking to Gay Fans.”

Holliday’s letter announced that she will not perform and that she sides with her gay fans:

“My only choice must now be to stand with the LGBT Community and to state unequivocally that I WILL NOT PERFORM FOR THE WELCOME CONCERT OR FOR ANY OF THE INAUGURATION FESTIVITIES!,” she wrote

Holliday’s representative said that the singer was upset because her performance was announced before she made the decision to appear. Holliday’s publicist, Bill Carpenter, said in a statement:

“It was presented to her as a concert that would heal the wounds of the election season. She was asked to perform ‘Hard Times Come No More,’ originally recorded by Bob Dylan. The inaugural committee released the information before she officially made a decision.”

Read Holliday’s full letter below:

TO MY BELOVED LGBT COMMUNITY:

Please allow me this opportunity to speak to you directly and to explain why I originally made my decision to perform at the inauguration which was what I had thought would be my simply keeping in my tradition of being a “bi-partisan songbird” having sung for Presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush.

I was asked to sing a song for what was presented to me as the “Welcome Concert For The People”– in my mind I was reflecting on the past times of being asked to sing for presidents and I only focused on the phrase “For The People”… I thought, For America!

I was honestly just thinking that I wanted my voice to be a healing and unifying force for hope through music to help our deeply polarized country… Regretfully, I did not take into consideration that my performing for the concert would actually instead be taken as a political act against my own personal beliefs and be mistaken for support of Donald Trump and Mike Pence.

In light of the information pointed out to me via the Daily Beast article on yesterday, my only choice must now be to stand with the LGBT Community and to state unequivocally that I WILL NOT PERFORM FOR THE WELCOME CONCERT OR FOR ANY OF THE INAUGURATION FESTIVITIES!

I sincerely apologize for my lapse of judgement, for being uneducated on the issues that affect every American at this crucial time in history and for causing such dismay and heartbreak to my fans.

Please know that I HEAR YOU and I feel your pain. The LGBT Community was mostly responsible for birthing my career and I am deeply indebted to you… You have loved me faithfully and unconditionally and for so many years you provided me with work even though my star had long since faded.

Thank you for communicating with me, I had no idea that I still meant so much to all of you.

Thank you for your posted comments both the good supportive ones as well as the ugly hurtful ones.

With LOVE & Appreciation,

JENNIFER  HOLLIDAY
“The Original DreamGirl”