Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton called on some of music’s biggest names for a star-studded concert at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles Monday night, just hours before the polls opened for Tuesday’s critical California primary.
Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera, John Legend, Ricky Martin and Andra Day performed at the sold-out “She’s With Us” concert Monday night, with the proceeds from the show going to the Hillary Victory Fund joint fundraising committee.
A bevy of other celebrities — including actresses Eva Longoria, Kate Walsh and Mary Steenburgen; actor Jamie Foxx; singer Cher; basketball great Magic Johnson; and Scandal showrunner Shonda Rhimes — also participated in Monday night’s event, with many delivering short remarks to the crowd.
The Associated Press reported just before the concert began that with the support of superdelegates, Clinton had amassed the required number of delegates to clinch the Democrat presidential nomination. But stars including Legend and Longoria urged the candidate’s supporters to disregard the AP’s report and vote in Tuesday’s election.
“No matter what the AP says about who won the nomination, we need folks to vote tomorrow in all the races,” Legend said, according to the Daily Mail.
Clinton herself spoke for just six minutes, according to the Boston Herald.
“We’re going to come out of the primary even stronger to take on Donald Trump,” the candidate pledged, her voice reportedly hoarse after a long day spent campaigning across the southern part of the state.
Meanwhile, Clinton’s celebrity surrogates used their time at the concert to take shots, veiled or otherwise, at presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump.
“When I see Trump talking, I just want to blow my brains out,” Cher told the audience, according to Billboard. “Well, maybe not my brains, but I’m just like, ‘What are you talking about, Jesus!’ I know that Hillary fights for equality for all people and we are no good unless all of us are equal.”
“I’m a ninth-generation American,” Desperate Housewives star Longoria reportedly said, “but I’m sure Trump will tell you otherwise.”
Aguilera performed her hit songs “Fighter” and “Ain’t No Other Man,” while Legend and Wonder teamed up for a performance of the latter’s classic 1972 hit “Superstition.”
“This is a fight, it’s a spiritual fight,” Wonder said, according to the Herald. “We cannot allow hatred to be in America ever. This is the United States of all the people, of all cultures and ethnicities. My prayer is that we understand that and don’t lose ourselves.”
Clinton’s chief Democrat rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, also held a concert on Monday in San Francisco, with appearances by rocker Dave Matthews, actor Danny Glover and professor Cornel West.
Clinton and Sanders are locked in a virtual dead heat in California headed into Tuesday’s vote. Five other states will vote Tuesday in the country’s final primaries.
Follow Daniel Nussbaum on Twitter: @dznussbaum
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