Mirror: R&B singer Chrisette Michele has claimed that she didn't think twice about performing for President Donald Trump's Inauguration, despite stars like Jennifer Halliday receiving death threats for saying yes – but it's come at a cost.
The 34-year-old, who felt the need to change her phone number after the announcement was made, was joined by the likes of 3 Doors Down and Jon Voight for the Make America Great Again event which has been broadly described as one of the most disappointing Inauguration concerts in history.
Chrisette has now revealed that while she didn't hesitate to say yes to perform she did not even get a hello from the new president of the United States.
“When we got the phone call, and this may sound crazy, there was literally no hesitation,” the No Political Genius star told Billboard.
“I turned my phone off. After seeing what happened to Jennifer Halliday, I literally turned my phone off because I knew if I was going to make any type of decision, I couldn’t be swayed left or right by what anybody thought. I had to just go with my own convictions. I changed my phone number also. I didn’t even think to say no. It didn’t cross my mind.”
The Grammy award winner, who recently performed for Barack and Michelle Obama at a White House state dinner was familiar with the process but was surprised when a Trump aide gave her the new plans.
“Originally I was supposed to perform directly after his first speech, and I had done that with Barack Obama before, so I was used to that kind of experience. And the woman who organised the event came and told me, 'Now you’re going to go first and he’s going to go after you',” she said.
“I looked her in the eye and said, 'My family has disowned me. If you decide to Google me, you’ll see that America is writing about me in their newspapers. I’m the black poster child for discord right now, and he’s not going to shake my hand?' So no, I didn’t get to meet him… I know he has a lot of other things going on. I don’t know if, like Barack and Michelle, he’s listening to my album or that I’ll be on his summer playlist, so I don’t want to take it that way. I’d rather be optimistic and think that they’ll come another chance where I can talk to him.”
