After hours of rumors about a surprise guest at the last night of the Democratic National Convention, no one showed. Earlier on Thursday, all signs seemed to point to Beyoncé, whose song “Freedom” has become Kamala Harris’s unofficial campaign anthem. But no one was quite sure — people speculated that it could be anyone from Taylor Swift to Mitt Romney, George W. Bush, or the Hamilton cast. In the end, it turns out the person closing out the big show was … Kamala Harris.
The vice-president took the stage to accept her nomination, with no surprises before or after her speech. Instead, the DNC ended like they always have: Doug Emhoff came out, followed by the Walzes, and they stood triumphantly for the photo op while balloons fell. I imagine the general vibe of the room was one of confusion. They thought they were going to see Beyoncé! TMZ reported it!
The signs were there, of course. Shortly before Harris’s speech, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Beyoncé was “never scheduled” to perform. The singer’s publicist, Yvette Noel Schure, shared the headline on her Instagram Story. She also shared a post in which she wrote, “Focus on the win and register to vote. Do not report rumors.”
TMZ later admitted: “To quote the great Beyoncé: We gotta lay our cards down, down, down … we got this one wrong.” While we may not have gotten Beyoncé, we did get a lot of funny tweets. So, we’ll always have that?
I wonder what happened here. Did Beyoncé get cold feet? Did some comms staffer start a rumor to get more young people to tune in to Harris’s speech? Did they get stuck in that infamous 10 p.m. Chicago traffic? We may never know. But if you have any intel, feel free to get in touch.
This post has been updated.
