{"id":66892,"date":"2026-06-18T17:36:30","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T17:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/18\/see-the-roots-eddie-vedder-more-perform-at-obama-library-ceremony\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T17:36:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T17:36:30","slug":"see-the-roots-eddie-vedder-more-perform-at-obama-library-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/18\/see-the-roots-eddie-vedder-more-perform-at-obama-library-ceremony\/","title":{"rendered":"See the Roots, Eddie Vedder, More Perform at Obama Library Ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Hudson, Christina Aguilera, and more also on hand for opening of Obama Presidential Center and Library in Chicago<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n\t\t<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div class=\"pmc-paywall\">\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe Obama Presidential Center and Library opened Thursday in Chicago, with its grand opening ceremony touting a guest list that could rival any music festival: Bruce Springsteen, U2\u2019s Bono and the Edge, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/the-roots\/\" id=\"auto-tag_the-roots\" data-tag=\"the-roots\">the Roots<\/a>, Stevie Wonder, and more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe Roots kicked the proceedings with a funky rendition of jazz great Donald Byrd\u2019s \u201cChange (Makes You Want to Hustle)\u201d that segued into their own \u201cYou Got Me\u201d and later transformed into a bluesy take on Bob Marley\u2019s \u201cGet Up, Stand Up.\u201d The Roots then kept the party going with a cover of Kool &amp; The Gang\u2019s \u201cJungle Boogie.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Grand Opening Ceremony at the Obama Presidential Center\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/A87ohdXcJtY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tEGOT winner and Chicago native <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/jennifer-hudson\/\" id=\"auto-tag_jennifer-hudson\" data-tag=\"jennifer-hudson\">Jennifer Hudson<\/a> was also on hand to deliver the national anthem as well as <em>The Man of La Mancha<\/em>\u2019s iconic \u201cThe Impossible Dream (The Quest),\u201d which Hudson previously performed at a 2009 NAACP tribute to Muhammad Ali.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/christina-aguilera\/\" id=\"auto-tag_christina-aguilera\" data-tag=\"christina-aguilera\">Christina Aguilera<\/a> was the next artist to take the stage, and performed a song that was one of the Obamas\u2019 favorites, even though she had never performed it live before: Louis Armstrong\u2019s \u201cWhat a Wonderful World,\u201d with Aguilera putting a new arrangement on the often-covered classic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tPearl Jam\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/eddie-vedder\/\" id=\"auto-tag_eddie-vedder\" data-tag=\"eddie-vedder\">Eddie Vedder<\/a>, a native of Chicago and a diehard Cubs fan, linked up with local musical non-profit Guitars Over Guns to debut a new song he wrote with the teens, \u201cBetter Believe.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules trending-in-article lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tJohn Legend, another EGOT winner, then took the stage to cover Donny Hathaway\u2019s \u201cSomeday We\u2019ll All Be Free,\u201d and reminisced about first meeting Obama when he was an Illinois senator. Chicago rapper Common then popped up onstage alongside Legend and a choir to perform their Oscar-winning hit \u201cGlory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<em>This is a developing story\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/the-roots-eddie-vedder-stevie-wonder-obama-library-ceremony-1235580452\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Hudson, Christina Aguilera, and more also on hand for opening of Obama Presidential Center and Library in Chicago The Obama Presidential&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":66893,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}