51st Annual Grammy Awards held in Los Angeles
Natalie Cole holds her Grammy Award for "Still Unforgettable" at the 51st annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on February 8, 2009. (UPI Photo/ Phil McCarten)
Photo Galleries
 |
Added February 10, 2010 with 13 photos
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- The weatherman said the wind was blowing in a blizzard so a star-studded concert at the U.S. White House celebrating civil rights era music was moved up a day.
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama had expected to hold the latest in the 2010 White House Music Series, "In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement," Wednesday in the East Room but the impending bad weather prompted the change to Tuesday night.
The lineup included The Freedom Singers, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Yolanda Adams, Natalie Cole, Smokey Robinson, Jennifer Hudson, John Mellencamp, John Legend, Seal, the Howard University Choir and the Blind Boys of Alabama.
Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Queen Latifah were the scheduled guest speakers.
Before they performed, the president told the audience attending the Black History Month event the civil rights movement and musicians of the time fed off each other, USA Today reported.
"It was music that was not only inspired by the movement, but gave strength in return," Obama said. "Let this music carry us forth, as one people. As one nation."
The concert will be televised at 8 p.m. EST Thursday on public broadcasting stations nationwide.
|
Latest Headlines
UPI Almanac for Monday, Feb. 6, 2012.
BURBANK, Calif., Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Prolific jazz pianist Clare Fischer died in Southern California this week of complications from a heart attack at the age of 83, the family announced.
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Barbra Streisand will get a major award during Grammy week next year, Entertainment Tonight reports.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- The 2010 White House Music Series is to kick off with a celebration of music from the Civil Rights Movement, organizers said Friday.
NEW YORK, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Andrea Bocelli's upcoming CD, "My Christmas," will feature duets with Mary J. Blige, Natalie Cole, Reba McEntire and The Muppets, Decca Label Group said.
VIENNA, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- Vienna's mayor says the Michael Jackson tribute that had been planned for the city, then scrapped, was not well organized.
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- Chris Brown, Mary J. Blige and Natalie Cole will not be performing as previously announced at the Michael Jackson tribute concert in Vienna, sources told TMZ.
LOS ANGELES, May 26 (UPI) -- Natalie Cole's publicist says the U.S. singer has been released from a Los Angeles hospital following her kidney transplant surgery.
NEW YORK, May 22 (UPI) -- Natalie Cole's older sister Cookie died while the U.S. singer was undergoing kidney transplant surgery this week, another sibling said.
LOS ANGELES, May 20 (UPI) -- U.S. singer Natalie Cole, who has been undergoing dialysis three times a week since September, has had a kidney transplant, her publicist said.
Quotes
United Press International
United Press International