Aretha Franklin to Perform at Inauguration

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Aretha Franklin will perform at President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration, and civil rights leader the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery will deliver the benediction.

The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies announced the inauguration’s lineup Wednesday afternoon.

“The inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama will be an event of historic proportion,” Committee Chairwoman Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said in a press release. “It is appropriate that the program will include some of the world’s most gifted artists from a wide range of backgrounds and genres.”

Also performing Jan. 20 will be poet Elizabeth Alexander, who was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize and has won other awards for work that “continues to improve race relations in American society,” according to a press release.

Musicians Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero and Anthony McGill are also in the lineup. As is custom, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts will administer Obama’s oath to office.