Motown Brings the 'Sound Track of the Civil Rights Era' to the White House
PHOTO: Roy Lewis/Trice Edney News Wire
WASHINGTON (TriceEdneyWire.com) - President Obama and First Lady
Michelle Obama hosted music legends and contemporary major artists at
the White House for a Black History celebration, “The Motown Sound: In
Performance at the White House.” The Feb. 24 concert also celebrated the
legacy of Motown Records. First Lady Michelle also welcomed more than
100 students from California, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota and
Washington, D.C. to take part in an interactive student workshop event,
“The Sound of Young America: The History of Motown.”
Pictured onstage with Mrs. Obama are John Legend, who performed
classic Motown songs; Motown icon Smokey Robinson, Berry Gordy, who
founded Motown 50 years ago, and Bob Santelli, executive director of the
Grammy Museum. Performances included "Get Ready," ''The Way You Do the
Things You Do," ''Can't Get Next to You" and "Ain't Too Proud to Beg."
President Obama called it the “sound track of the civil rights era.”
Performers also included Natasha Bedingfield, Sheryl Crow, Jamie Foxx,
Gloriana, Nick Jonas, Ledisi, Amber Riley, Mark Salling, Seal and Jordin
Sparks with Greg Phillinganes as the night’s music director.