Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez and Jon Bon Jovi were highlights of a dignified if wary affair

Of all the brave moves Joe Biden made during his inauguration ceremony, having any music at all was among the boldest; there was a strong chance any singers would be drowned out by the global sigh of relief. Yet out of the Capitol itself a damaged but defiant diva of a building they strode. Lady Gaga clutching a golden microphone through which to turn The Star-Spangled Banner into a tonsil torturing showtune. Jennifer Lopez slickly mashing up This Land is Your Land, America the Beautiful and a burst of the pledge of allegiance in Spanish. An attempt to unite the country and ensure peace forevermore with an acapella country gospel rendition of Amazing Grace by Garth Brooks, going for his Hasselhoff-on-the-Berlin Wall moment.
It was certainly a day to play everything safe, but it was also clear that Biden wasnt about to sign any executive orders to drastically overhaul Americas musical constitution. The virtual Parade Across America that followed scared no horses on its way past either, with its many be-tassled marching bands and dance troupes, its emotive R&B take on Rise Up from Andra Day and its ebullient disco medley from Nile Rodgers, Sister Sledge and Earth, Wind & Fire. Even the much-touted reunion of Nineties bucket-hat rockers New Radicals (Americas World Party, basically) found them excising all of the lines about violent youth rebellion and wealth inequality from their only hit You Get What You Give. If anything, Trump musically mic-dropped Biden simply by pardoning a couple of rappers on his way out.
Once democracy had survived until dinnertime, though, America could afford itself a reassuring self-hug. As Tom Hankss 90-minute TV special Celebrating America began, Bruce Springsteen appeared on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial playing a solo acoustic Land of Hope and Dreams, one of his vast corn-store of haunted blue-collar ballads about downtrodden everymen dreaming of a better future. Only this time when he sang tomorrow therell be sunshine and all this darkness past and meet me in a land of hope and dreams, it was with the faraway nobility of a man finally seeing his personal utopia swim into view and feeling the political sun on his cheek.
And there the tone was struck: relief, rehabilitation, a dignified hope, but also a wariness that, after four years of political savagery and sown divisions, theres a lot of healing to be done, and fast. Much of the show resembled a public health warning about fascism Hankss austere monologues and speeches from presidents past and present stressed messages of unity, understanding and Americas proud history of democracy, highlighting by their very inclusion just how fragile those ideals had become beneath Trumps fraudulent thumbs. Against this sombre backdrop, it was up to the acts to provide all the bright tomorrows.
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Which they increasingly did, in spades. Jon Bon Jovi beamed his way through Here Comes the Sun on a beachside boardwalk, backed by the worlds most Pro Tooled busker band. Back in Lincolns shadow, John Legend revelled in the sultry strut of Feeling Good, all Bond horns and new-day optimism. Demi Lovato led a video choir of doctors and nurses in a celebratory Lovely Day from a virtual sky-pod above LA. And Foo Fighters repurposed Times Like These as a moving, misty organ ballad that could have been written for the day. Its times like these we learn to love again, Dave Grohl lamented, before the band kicked into a powerhouse final chorus that sounded like America pulling itself together and realising, actually, it was pretty great in the first place.
Lady Gaga performs at Joe Bidens inauguration ceremony
It was a safe, soothing and unadventurous affair, but necessarily so, and what fresh material did emerge was solidly on-message. In one of the nights most inspirational moments, Ant Clemons and Justin Timberlake took last years lockdown collaboration Better Days” into a street full of R&B gospel singers, while, in Nashville, Tyler Hubbard and Tim McGraw debuted a slick pop-country tune called Undivided that wouldve been trite in the extreme if it hadnt been so important: Its time to come together, they sang to Trumps heartland, weve been hateful long enough. As the show wrapped up with Katy Perrys most rousing ever Firework and images of Joe and Jill enjoying a million-dollar pyrotechnic display for two from the White House balcony, the mundanity of Celebrating Americas music paled beneath the shows new-dawn significance and Springsteens land of hope and dreams began to look a distinct possibility. Although, one suspects, Parler would have been spitting fire.
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