Against some fan backlash, Josh Groban brought a special performance to President Joe Biden’s Inaugural Prayer Service Thursday morning.
Backed by the Donald Lawrence & Company gospel choir, Groban sang a powerful rendition of “America the Beautiful” — one of the many shower songs he’s performed from home during the pandemic.
“I love to make music because I love how it reaches people,” Groban previously told the Deseret News. “I love to be able to tell stories, and to be able to feel less alone through those stories. When you take something like COVID — which beyond the horrible physical things that are happening — I think even if you don’t get it, we’re all feeling the mental health part of just feeling that disconnect.
“We need to connect,” he continued. “And I think there’s a re-appreciation of what art does in our lives to help us do that.”
Groban’s initial announcement that he would be participating in the virtual service, taking place the day after President Joe Biden’s inauguration, drew both criticism and praise from fans, the Deseret News previously reported.
Many of Groban’s social media followers commented that they would no longer listen to the singer’s music or buy his records, while others thanked the singer for sharing his talents for the occasion.
Groban has been musically involved during the pandemic, releasing an album and performing several virtual concerts — including one coming up on Valentine’s Day.
“Now is not the time for silence. We need music to connect us,” he told the Deseret News in November 2020, two weeks after Election Day. “I don’t even mean just COVID — we’re so divided. Everybody is so scared, they’re so angry. And it’s such a time of great anxiety that now more than ever I feel grateful that the reaching out that I’m getting from fans really is that it’s providing kind of a universal language at a time when we’re all feeling like we don’t understand each other, and even ourselves.”