Jon Stewart started Thursday’s live show of The Daily Show by mentioning the obvious sad news.
“Everyone was excited tonight, not just for Kamala Harris,” he said. “People were guessing there might be a special guest. Did they get it right?”
Then he showed a clip of Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin.
“Folks thought Beyoncé would show up, but it was Slotkin all along,” Stewart laughed, calling himself a proud member of the #BeyHive #SlotHive. He then humorously informed the audience that Queen Bey wasn’t going to appear on The Daily Show either.
Audience members groaned, and Stewart responded quickly, “Tickets are free, motherf–ker!”
There had been rumors about Beyoncé showing up this week, but nothing official from the Democratic National Committee. However, on Thursday evening, TMZ reported that she was in Chicago and might perform before Vice President Harris accepted her nomination.
Then at 10 pm ET, as the convention was wrapping up, Beyoncé’s team ended the speculation. “Beyoncé was never scheduled to be there,” her rep confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. “The report of a performance is untrue.”
To quote the great Beyonce: We gotta lay our cards down, down, down … we got this one wrong.
— TMZ (@TMZ)
To quote the great Beyonce: We gotta lay our cards down, down, down ... we got this one wrong.
— TMZ (@TMZ) August 23, 2024
Beyoncé has been involved in politics before. In 2009, she performed at the Inauguration Ball when Barack and Michelle Obama had their first dance as President and First Lady:
And in 2013, she sang the national anthem at Obama’s second inauguration:
Her song “Freedom” from 2016 became Kamala Harris’s campaign anthem. Even though Beyoncé didn’t perform on Thursday, there were performances by The Chicks singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” (watch here), and Pink performing “What About Us?” with her daughter Willow (watch here).
