Lady Gaga fans who were wondering what song she would pull out for Kamala Harris‘ final rally in Philadelphia Monday night got a song arguably even more glorious than “Edge of Glory” — Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” — to preface the candidate’s speech. But she didn’t let down those who wanted to hear her own inspirational anthem, returning after Harris’ climactic speech to indeed belt out “Edge of Glory” as the clock struck 12 and election day officially arrived.
“For more than half of this country’s life, women didn’t have a voice,” Gaga said in introducing “God Bless America” while sitting at the piano. The singer spoke of women during that time who “raised children. We held our families together. We supported men as they made the decisions. But tomorrow, women will be a part of making this decision. Today I am holding in my heart all the tough, tenacious women who made me who I am. I cast my vote for someone who will be a president for all Americans. And now, Pennsylvania, it’s your turn. The country is depending on you. So tomorrow make sure all your voices are heard. Come on, let’s go!”
Gaga had plenty of celebrity company during the evening, as a seven-hour livestream from electoral swing states included an impassioned speech by Oprah Winfrey and musical appearances by Katy Perry, Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin, Sugarland, and the unusual teaming of Jon Bon Jovi, Michael Stipe and the War & Treaty, among others.
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While some of the four hours’ worth of livestreamed campaigning took place in Michigan, North Carolina and Nevada, there was no mistaking that the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh events got the most focus. “You will decide the outcome of this election, Pennsylvania,” said Harris in closing out her final rally appearance in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
After Gaga made her first appearance, Winfrey introduced several young first-time voters, then delivered an address that alternated hope and optimism with the suggestion that the fate of the union may be at stake in the coming hours.
“I know that some of you are feeling burnt out and bruised and maybe even inconsequential. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Winfrey said. “Every single vote, every one, is going to matter. That’s why I’ve come to Philadelphia tonight. And yesterday I was all the way across the country and I was hiking on a Sunday afternoon, and I met a woman named Angela who told me that she was gonna sit this one out. Now, I know she was immediately sorry. She told me that. Because I would not let up. So I said, ‘We don’t get to sit this one out.’
“If we don’t show up tomorrow, it is entirely possible that we will not have the opportunity to ever cast a ballot again,” Winfrey continued. “And let me be very clear, if you do not make sure that the people in your life can get to the polls, that is a mistake. Deciding not to decide, that is most definitely a vote to let other people control your future…
“Now, all we all know what we’re voting against, so I want to end by reminding you about. A few things that we’re voting for: We are voting to defend and protect the Constitution of the United States. We are voting for values. We are voting for values and integrity. We are voting for the right to choose what happens to our own bodies. We’re we’re voting to save ourselves from this precipice of danger. Where we now stand, all the anxiety and the fear you’re feeling, you’re feeling that because you sense the danger and you change that with your vote. We are voting for healing over hate.”
Winfrey wore a shirt bearing the slogan “Yes She Can,” and her appearance was immediately preceded by Will.i.am singing his song of that name, which was originally penned for the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016.
In Detroit, Bon Jovi sang “Livin’ on a Prayer,” with the husband-and-wife duo the War & Treaty belting out the higher parts of the chorus, and Stipe chiming in. The ex-R.E.M. frontman sang lead vocals of his own on “Driver 8,” though that was not included in the livestream. Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz and potential first gentleman Doug Emhoff were seen just offstage, bonding over the historic Bon Jovi/R.E.M. rock summit meeting.
In Pittsburgh, Perry sang “Dark Horse,” “Part of Me,” “Firework” and a cover of Whitney Houston’s classic “Greatest Love of All,” although, again, home audiences saw only part of that performance, as the livestream cut from city to city and speech to speech.
Aguilera performed “Stronger” in Pittsburgh. In North Carolina, the recently reunited Sugarland revived “Something More,” with its possibly prescient lines about how “Armegeddon could be knockin’ at my door.” In Las Vegas, Jorge Hernandez of Los Tigres del Norte brought the Latin music house down. DJ Cassidy emceed the entire evening from his turntable-filled perch in Philly.
Not all the musical performers were major-label acts: the ensemble sitting in for Beyonce in performing “Freedom” was the Morehouse House of Funk Marching Band, from Atlanta.
Veteran rapper Fat Joe, fresh off appearing in New York before a World Series Game at Yankee Stadium, put his musical support toward a different contest Monday, introducing Ricky Martin by saying, “I heard they needed a Puerto Rican in Philly, and I’m so happy to be here and represent the Puerto Ricans.” He spoke of Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, or “what I call a hate rally in my neck of the woods. ’m a sucker for a laugh… I find anything funny. But when they get up there and they call Puerto Rico an island of garbage… I did not find that to be a joke,” saying the rally also “disrespected Jewish people” and referenced “Black people caving watermelons… If you’re the last undecided voter, if you don’t know who you’re voting for, you gotta be kidding me at this point.”
Hours before her closing Philadelphia appearance, Harris was seen across the state in Pittsburgh, offering a speech that was nearly identical to the one she delivered in the final hour. In the earlier appearance, she was introduced by Cedric the Entertainer, who said, “She is not a demagogue, and yet she is not demure… Tonight, let’s dance, and tomorrow let’s make history.”
In Detroit, vice presidential candidate Tim Walz referenced Trump’s recent head-turning declaration that he would help women “whether they like it or not,” by saying, “Send a loud and clear message to Donald Trump — whether he likes it or not.”