Country star Martina McBride has become the latest performer to back out of the upcoming “Freedom 250” concerts on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., posting on her social accounts Thursday night that she was dropping out of her planned show after learning that it carried far more political baggage than she’d realized.
McBride is one of four artists who’ve dropped out of the concert series in the less than two days since it was announced, the others being Morris Day and Young MC, who announced their exits on Wednesday, and the Commodores, who publicly pulled out Thursday afternoon. (A fifth artist, C&C Music Factory frontman Freedom Williams, said Wednesday he was wavering between whether to drop out or fulfill the gig.)
Although the language on the Freedom 250 website says all of the patriotic events planned for D.C. are nonpartisan, artists announced as participating in the concerts have been hit with a wave of backlash from fans who believe the shows will be partisan, if not MAGA-leaning, due to being produced by an organization founded by Donald J. Trump.
“I would like to talk to you and clear the air,” McBride wrote in her post. “I will not be performing at the Great American State Fair on June 25th. I was presented with an opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event but that turned out to be misleading. I asked lots of questions and was assured that this was a nonpartisan event that was meant to celebrate ALL 50 states. In my mind I thought this was a great way to celebrate the states and also bring people together in the way that only music can. I saw it as just a bigger version of so many state fairs I have performed at over the years, celebrating community and what makes each state special. Sounds fun, right? Wholesome, even. Yesterday, things started changing and what we were told is, in fact, not what is happening.”
