John Legend welcomed Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night, performing a song by one of Minnesota’s greatest artists: Prince. Before accepting Walz as the party’s vice presidential nominee, Legend paid tribute to the Gopher State, where Walz coached high school football before becoming governor. (Legend previously participated in a Prince tribute at the 2020 Grammy Awards, performing Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.”)
Along with Sheila E., Legend sang “Let's Go Crazy” – the 1984 single released by Prince and The Revolution, from the album purple rain.
Legend shared his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris as a presidential candidate in an interview with CBS Mornings on Wednesday, saying, “She also has the right character traits that I think make her a great president, which is that she cares about people’s lives, she wants government to work for people and make people’s lives better.” He joined a group of actors and artists who have also pledged their support for the presidential candidate, including Charli XCX, Barbra Streisand, Jane Fonda, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Kerry Washington.
Grammy Award-winning country artist Maren Morris, a vocal advocate for LGBT rights and gender-affirming healthcare, also performed earlier Wednesday evening, singing her 2020 hit “Better Than We Found It.”
In 2022, “Bones” singer Brittany Aldean, wife of country artist Jason Aldean, criticized her for her transphobic comments, and during a January 2023 interview RuPaul's Drag Race In her appearance, Morris apologized on behalf of the country music industry for its discriminatory treatment of LGBTQ+ people. Morris received the Changemaker Award at Variety’s Hitmakers event in December and spoke candidly about the “deeply broken” genre that favors men, adding, “Even as I stand here today, not a single female solo artist has been in the top 20 on the Country Airplay charts in the last two weeks.”
“I realized very quickly that publicly pointing out these inequalities doesn’t make you the most popular,” Morris continued at the Hitmakers event. “If you dare to call out the blatant misogyny, racism, and transphobia within your industry, you will face isolation, death threats, being called an ingrate, biting the hand that feeds you. Or being told in a humiliating way to shut up and sing.”
Several country artists took the stage during the first night of the Democratic National Convention: Mickey Jetton performed “All American” — which Rolling Stones Marissa R. Moss called the song “an audible version of Harris-Walz's camouflage hat”—and Jason Isbell sang “Something More Than Free” from his 2015 album of the same name.
Pink is expected to wrap up the Chicago conference on Thursday.
