Jennifer Holliday is opening up about why she will not be performing at Donald Trump’s upcoming inauguration.
During an appearance on The View on Tuesday, the 56-year-old Dream Girls singer reveals she received death threats and was the victim of racial slurs after being announced as one of the performers slated to headline Trump’s pre-inauguration event on Thursday, Jan. 19.
When asked why she initially agreed to perform, Holliday says, “Because I’m an artist and I love America. It just didn’t dawn on me. I have performed for four other presidents. I started with Ronald Reagan, daddy Bush, Bush, the Clintons during their eight-year time… It really wasn’t a thing back then.”
Recalling the death threats she received online, Holliday says, “They were saying I should kill myself or someone should kill me… all over singing a song.”
“I’m not a liar or a hypocrite and I haven’t done anything to be called names,” the singer later adds, getting emotional. “I grew up in a mixed middle class neighbourhood in Texas and I’ve never been called the N-word. And I was like, ‘Wow, we’ve come to this.’”
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Holliday’s appearance on The View comes shortly after the singer issued a public apology to the LGBTQ community via The Wrap. “I sincerely apologize for my lapse of judgement, for being uneducated on the issues that affect every American at this crucial time in history,” Holliday said.
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