I write for MONEY!
Robert Stacy McCain
While Donald Trump was flying to Michigan after his 3 hour session with Joe Rogan Kamala Harris was in Houston where a crowd of 30,000 had gathered.
That crowd has been told by media reports that pop superstar Beyoncé was going to be there and at least one news organization (NBC) reported that she would be performing for free at the event.
Pop superstar Beyoncé will appear with Vice President Kamala Harris at her event in Houston on Friday evening, according to three sources familiar with the plans.
Beyoncé is also expected to perform, said one of the sources, who has direct knowledge of the preparations. The Washington Post first reported the news of Beyoncé’s appearance.
Old friend Captain (am I the only person who still calls him that?) Ed Morrissey notes that the Post was a lot more circumspect in terms of facts vs rumor that NBC news in their story
The Washington Post was a bit more careful, perhaps as a result of the “false rumors” that Beyoncé would perform on the final night of the Democrat convention. Their report on Thursday didn’t include a suggestion that she would sing, but would “appear” at the rally
Nevertheless 30,000 people turned out knowing that Beyoncé was going to be there and the Harris campaign gleefully noted the large crowd.
I suspect those 30,000 came fully expecting her to hear Beyoncé sing. I suspect this because when she got on the stage and introduced Kamala Harris and left WITHOUT signing thing went a tad south for the Harris campaign.
How many of those 30,000 who have not yet voted do you think left that “event” feeling duped? How many of them do you think got home after paying for parking and navigating the traffic that comes from a 30K crowd for a concert that didn’t happen just so she can get Politico to claim she “won the day” might just be, at worst, pissed off enough to vote Trump or at best pissed off enough to stay home for Election 2024?
Ted Cruz should send her a “Thank you” card.
But all of this leads to one simply question: Why didn’t Beyoncé sing?
I mean surely she could have done at least one tune to please the crowd? I understand that it’s not the 1940’s where Bing Crosby could just break into song without a band and her performances might usually require more of a setup for it to come near the quality of what a concert performance might be, but one might think a professional singer is capable of singing a song without the bells and whistles and still not tank.
Furthermore while the idea of a celeb being dense is not foreign to me (after all she endorsed Harris) it’s quite inconceivable to me that she would be unaware of the negative effect that her failure to sing would have on the crowd both immediately at the event and afterwards when their dissatisfaction at the bait and switch would be amplified both in person to friends and on social media.
And if she had been duped by the Harris campaign assuring her that all they wanted was her introduction but telling the press she would sing in the hope of pressuring her to do so, she could have easily bowed out claiming illness or some other reason for not appearing as announced while still giving an endorsement.
So the question remains on the floor: If she actually wants Harris to win why didn’t she sing for her that day?
I don’t claim to know the answer but suspect the it can be traced to some advice that an old Italian man once gave to a young boxer named Rocco Francis Marchegiano who you know better as the only undefeated Heavyweight Champion in history Rocky Marciano back in the 1940’s
“Someday you’re going to win the title and then a lot of guys you never saw before will be coming around,” Mike Piccento had told him long before, “If they want to be with you let them pay. They’ve got the money. They can afford it. They don’t want to be with just plain Rocky. They want to be with a champion. If you were nobody they wouldn’t give you a second look. And if you go downhill, they’ll drop you like a hot potato. So let them pay.”
Everett M Skehan (with family assistance by Peter, Louis and Mary Ann Marciano) Rocky Marciano Biography of a First son page 215
or consider this classic exchange from the old All in the Family Episode when Sammy Davis Jr. visits the Bunker home:
Archie Bunker: Can you maybe give us a little preview of one of the songs you’re gonna do?
Gloria Stivic : Oh, daddy. Mr. Davis makes his living entertaining. You’re asking him to go to work.
Mike Stivic: Yeah, Arch. How’d you like to be a guest in somebody’s house, and they say, “C’mon Arch, do some packing and lifting for us”?All in the Family Sammy’s Visit 1972
I suspect Beyoncé and most celebs understand this very well. If she was just Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter the Harris campaign wouldn’t care who she was. But she’s not, she’s Beyoncé! If the Kamala Harris campaign wants Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter to show up at a rally and say a few words of introduction for her in her home town no problem. But to paraphrase Robert Stacy McCain: Beyoncé sings for MONEY, and that makes it business.
So if Kamala of the 1 billion dollar election war chest wants Beyoncé the singer to sing, or to use the relevant word WORK, well that’s fine but she has to meet her fee like everyone else, otherwise a few words of introduction is all she was going to get. Given the end result I suspect paying for a song or two would have been worth every penny.
It’s not personal, it’s strictly business
