Close extra sharing options<\/span> <\/button> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ps-actionbar> <\/div><\/div><\/div>\n <\/gn-video-player> <\/div><\/div><\/div>\n
\u201cNo politics \u2014 just purpose\u201d is how America250 Chair Rosie Rios described the night in remarks from the stage, and it wasn\u2019t hard to interpret the distinction she was seeking to draw between her group and Freedom 250, Trump\u2019s rival semiquincentennial initiative that organized Saturday\u2019s windblown event on the National Mall (not to mention an earlier concert by Vanilla Ice that was called off due to the threat of rain).<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s the thing: Compared with the president\u2019s celebration, where he complained about his treatment by the justice system and suggested we should refer to his current term as his third, the show at the Coliseum really did feel like a politics-free zone \u2014 the somewhat rare occasion these days when folks from different walks of life come together just to listen to music and drink overpriced micheladas.<\/p>\n
Said Stapleton not long into his set: \u201cI won\u2019t waste time talking.\u201d<\/p>\n
America250\u2019s success was hardly a sure thing. Despite the relatively low price, tickets moved slowly in the weeks before the concert; one guy I talked to Saturday told me he\u2019d paid six bucks for a discounted pass. Yet to my eyes the Coliseum was close to full by the time Stapleton came on.<\/p>\n
The country singer was as solid and soulful as always, snarling gently through \u201cBad as I Used to Be,\u201d then trading loving harmonies with his wife, Morgane, in \u201cMillionaire.\u201d He closed with \u201cTennessee Whiskey,\u201d of course \u2014 a trusty yet somehow un-shopworn piece of Americana that\u2019s earned a place on the shelf next to Ray Charles\u2019 \u201cGeorgia on My Mind\u201d and Willie Nelson\u2019s \u201cAngel Flying Too Close to the Ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smashing Pumpkins was perhaps a stranger fit for an explicitly patriotic event \u2014 \u201cThe world is a vampire,\u201d frontman Billy Corgan sneered in \u201cBullet With Butterfly Wings\u201d \u2014 yet the band sounded sharp and punchy in the \u201990s alt-rock hits that have brought zoomers and even Gen Alpha kids into its audience.<\/p>\n
Billed not inaccurately on the concert\u2019s poster as \u201cthe legendary Chaka Khan,\u201d the 73-year-old funk doyenne flexed her vocal chops in jammy renditions of \u201cAin\u2019t Nobody\u201d and \u201cTell Me Something Good\u201d and got people hoisting their drinks for \u201cI\u2019m Every Woman.\u201d Morris, who\u2019d flown in from New York after attending her pal Taylor Swift\u2019s wedding on Friday night, made an improbably smooth segue between her and Zedd\u2019s synthed-up \u201cThe Middle\u201d and the rustic \u201cMy Church.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the show\u2019s host, Queen Latifah dispensed uplifting thoughts about American idealism throughout the evening but also got a slot of her own to do her classic \u201cU.N.I.T.Y.\u201d with help from a rambunctious drum line. It\u2019s an unapologetic message song about demanding respect, and what was moving about hearing it here is that nobody seemed put off by that idea.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll wave a flag for that.<\/p>\n
Here are more photos from Saturday\u2019s concert:<\/i><\/p>\n\n
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Chaka Khan performs.<\/p>\n
(Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
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Queen Latifah hosted the show.<\/p>\n
(Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
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A couple in patriotic garb share a kiss.<\/p>\n
(Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
\n
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Smashing Pumpkins performs.<\/p>\n
(Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
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A concertgoer enjoys confetti.<\/p>\n
(Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
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Maren Morris performs.<\/p>\n
(Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n
\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 www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In New York, the Brooklyn Bridge went up in flames briefly during a fireworks display. In Washington D.C., stormy weather delayed a grievance-filled speech by President Trump. And here in Los Angeles? On Saturday night, tens of thousands of Angelenos joined voices peacefully at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum to sing along with Chris Stapleton as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2489277,"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":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2489276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Chris-Stapleton-and-Chaka-Khan-celebrate-Americas-250th-at-the.com2F6d2Fe62F49da765c417f8f6ccaa3d145.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489276","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=2489276"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2489278,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489276\/revisions\/2489278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2489277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2489276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2489276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2489276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}