Dear Beyoncé and Taylor: Thanks for Staying Home. The DNC Benefitted From Treating Musicians as Opening Acts, Not Headliners
variety.comChris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Under any other circumstance, if there was a widespread rumor — supposedly verified by legit news sources — that Beyoncé was going to perform at an internationally televised event, only to have the evening proceed with no mention or trace of her, it’d feel deflating.
But that airy sound you heard across the land Thursday night wasn’t the sound of a whiff… it was a mass sigh of relief. (At least that’s a sensation that I’m guessing might have been more universally shared than not.) The news journalist in me was hoping that she or Taylor Swift would make an appearance at the Democratic National Convention; the political pragmatist who feels an actual stake in this election was praying the two of them would be making it a C-SPAN-and-chill night.
Part of the savvy of being a superstar is recognizing those moments when the world says it wants you but it really doesn’t. This Democratic National Convention was an exceptionally well-produced one, and that extends to a treatment of star entertainers that could be described as, for lack of a better term, conservative.
There were big stars, but not too big — no offense to Pink, who is currently headlining stadiums, but who knows as well as any of us that her nicely placed acoustic number is not going to dominate a news cycle.
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