By Canadian Press on June 18, 2026.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/medicinehatnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/cp\/2026\/06\/9e7c960bc324bcda7b563e7939aba36c4eca20b8187d4a7738cbd23433e19ab1-300x200.jpg\")
Former President Barack Obama, back center, and former first lady Michelle Obama, right, arrive on stage with their daughters, Sasha and Malia Obama, during the dedication ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center, Thursday, June 18, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo\/Jeff Roberson)<\/div>\nFormer President Barack Obama, joined by three former presidents, celebrated the opening of his presidential museum<\/a> in Chicago in an extraordinary event Thursday that brought together world leaders, A-list celebrities, athletes and other internationally known figures. Scott Bauer, The Associated Press<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 19 \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source medicinehatnews.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Canadian Press on June 18, 2026. Former President Barack Obama, back center, and former first lady Michelle Obama, right, arrive on stage with their daughters, Sasha and Malia Obama, during the dedication ceremony for the Obama Presidential Center, Thursday, June 18, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo\/Jeff Roberson) Former President Barack Obama, joined by three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2465730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2465729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781804196_Obama-Centers-opening-draws-former-presidents-music-legends-and-A-list.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2465729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2465731,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465729\/revisions\/2465731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2465730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2465729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2465729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2465729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nBruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Bono, Marc Anthony and Common were all slated to perform at the dedication ceremony. The Roots served as the house band.
\nObama and former first lady Michelle Obama and their daughters shared the stage with former presidents Joe Biden, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton along with former first ladies Jill Biden, Laura Bush and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Former Vice President Kamala Harris was also in attendance.
\nJennifer Hudson sang the national anthem and Christina Aguilera delivered a rousing rendition of \u201cWhat a Wonderful World.\u201d Pearl Jam\u2019s Eddie Vedder, joined by Chicago teenagers in the nonprofit Guitars Over Guns program, sang an original song called \u201cBetter Believe,\u201d written just for the dedication.
\nObama and Michelle Obama are both expected to give remarks. The invite-only celebration was livestreamed and kicks off a weekend of events centered around the Obama Presidential Center<\/a>, which opens to the general public<\/a> on Juneteenth<\/a>.
\nPresident Donald Trump was not in attendance. He called the $850 million center a \u201ctotal disaster\u201d in a social media post in February.
\nThose at the event included California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate; civil rights leaders Andrew Young and Al Sharpton; Oprah Winfrey; comedians David Letterman, Conan O\u2019Brien and Stephen Colbert; actor Tom Hanks; tennis legend Billie Jean King and Chicago Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts.
\nFormer world leaders in attendance included former Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel and former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
\nThousands more watched from a nearby park.
\n\u201cThis is not a monument to the Obamas,\u201d said Valerie Jarrett, the Obama Foundation\u2019s chief executive and former Obama top adviser. \u201cThis is a tribute to all those who made this journey possible.\u201d
\nMartin Nesbitt, chair of the Obama Foundation board, wore a tan suit in a joking nod toward the outfit Obama wore in 2014, drawing criticism over his fashion choice.
\nGeneral admission tickets for the center are sold out through the end of October. But tens of thousands of people have already been offered a sneak peek of the nearly 20-acre campus on Chicago\u2019s South Side in Jackson Park.
\nThe center, located near where Obama lived and began his political career, is expected to attract more than 1 million visitors annually. It is adjacent to the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry in the lakefront park, and not far from the University of Chicago.
\nThe campus includes a towering museum that covers the political and personal realms of the nation\u2019s first Black president and first lady, while public spaces include a branch of the Chicago Public Library, a playground and athletic center, basketball courts and a picnic area with grills.
\nThe tower\u2019s design is meant to depict four hands coming together in solidarity. Wrapped around one side are 5-foot tall concrete capital letters, an excerpt of Obama\u2019s 2015 speech<\/a> commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Selma-to-Montgomery march. It begins, \u201cYou are America.\u201d<\/p>\n
-18\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n