{"id":3929,"date":"2026-05-29T10:34:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T10:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/martina-mcbride-quits-freedom-250-festival-meant-to-celebrate-americas-birthday\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T10:34:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T10:34:06","slug":"martina-mcbride-quits-freedom-250-festival-meant-to-celebrate-americas-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/martina-mcbride-quits-freedom-250-festival-meant-to-celebrate-americas-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Martina McBride quits Freedom 250 festival meant to celebrate America&#8217;s birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F3%2F2026%2F05%2Fnewspress-collage-xgpc9zcly-1780049119963.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall%261780034795\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Country star Martina McBride has dropped out of the Freedom 250 concert series one day after it was announced, claiming the event celebrating America\u2019s 250th birthday was \u201cmisleading.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The singer revealed Thursday that she would no longer appear at the President Trump-affiliated <a href=\"https:\/\/freedom250.org\/news\/first-round-of-star-studded-entertainment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Freedom 250 Presents: The Great American State Fair<\/a>, the free 16-day festival set to take over the National Mall in Washington, D.C., with concerts, military tributes and patriotic bashes for <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/05\/28\/opinion\/rediscover-american-pride-and-patriotism-on-the-250th-anniversary\/\">America\u2019s 250th anniversary<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was presented with the opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event, but that turned out to be misleading,\u201d McBride <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DY5s4J5qPRj\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Martina McBride dropped out of the Freedom 250 festival, claiming the event for America\u2019s 250th was \u201cmisleading.\u201d <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI asked lots of questions and was assured this was a nonpartisan event that was meant to celebrate ALL 50 states. In my mind I thought this was a great way to celebrate the states and also bring people together in the way that only music can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYesterday things started changing and what we were told is, in fact, not what is happening,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve spent my entire career singing about real people with real issues. I\u2019ve been blessed with the opportunity to be a voice for those who have felt like they didn\u2019t have one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt greatly upsets me that any fan who has been moved by my music may now feel like I\u2019m abandoning the meaning behind those songs. I assure you, that is not the case,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>McBride had been scheduled to perform on June 25, the opening night of the festival, which is designed to celebrate America\u2019s history, culture and music.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>McBride was lined up for the opening night of the festival, which is designed to celebrate America\u2019s history and culture. <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images for CMT<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Her exit aligned with a handful of other cancellations after the lineup was unveiled this week, with Bret Michaels, Young MC, Morris Day &amp; The Time and The Commodores also backing out.<\/p>\n<p>Michaels echoed McBride\u2019s comments in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DY6M0UYlRXh\/?hl=en&amp;img_index=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram post<\/a> Thursday night.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen this opportunity was originally presented to my team, it was described as a celebration of our country through music and a chance to honor our veterans, active military, first responders, teachers and hardworking Americans from all walks of life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Bret Michaels also pulled out, saying the event had \u201cevolved into something much more divisive.\u201d <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, what was presented to us as a celebration of our country has evolved into something much more divisive than what I agreed to be a part of.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But several acts are still enthusiastically on board \u2014 including Vanilla Ice, Flo Rida and C+C Music Factory.<\/p>\n<p>There was some confusion after Milli Vanilli was announced to perform at the festival. However, singer Jodie Rocco \u2014 one of the original studio vocalists behind the group \u2014 told <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/freedom-250-milli-vanilli-young-mc-bb9c58cb68d3af91cd8aeb5c5c5d26a1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Associated Press<\/a> that neither she nor any other member had been asked to appear.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The free 16-day festival set to take over the National Mall in Washington, D.C. from June 25 through July 10. <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But surviving Milli Vanilli frontman Fab Morvan confirmed he plans to perform and embraced the event\u2019s patriotic message.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am here to entertain and unite people, not divide them,\u201d Morvan said in a statement. \u201cLet\u2019s celebrate life &amp; music and take a trip down memory lane.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vanilla Ice is also standing by the event. A rep for the rapper told the Associated Press he is \u201cproud to help celebrate America\u2019s 250th Anniversary!\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Freedom 250 was launched by President Trump to lead \u201cthe celebration of our Nation\u2019s 250th birthday.\u201d <span class=\"credit\">Aashish Kiphayet\/Zuma \/ SplashNews.com<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cEveryone is welcome to attend and celebrate USA\u2019s Birthday and our Freedom!\u201d the rep added.<\/p>\n<p>Freedom 250 was <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/12\/31\/us-news\/washington-monument-to-glow-on-new-years-eve-to-kick-off-americas-250th-anniversary\/\">launched by Trump last year<\/a> and describes itself as a \u201cnational, non-partisan organization leading the celebration of our Nation\u2019s 250th birthday.\u201d Former State Department official Keith Krach was appointed CEO.<\/p>\n<p>The Great American State Fair runs June 25 through July 10 and will include concerts, state showcases and special programming including Military &amp; Veterans Appreciation Day, Faith Values and Inspiration Day and MAHA Monday, focused on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s Make America Healthy Again initiative.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/05\/29\/entertainment\/martina-mcbride-quits-freedom-250-festival-meant-to-celebrate-americas-birthday\/\" target=\"_blank\">Source link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Country star Martina McBride has dropped out of the Freedom 250 concert series one day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/newspress-collage-xgpc9zcly-1780049119963.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}