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  • The Atlantic

    Rocking Out on the Campaign Trail

    Last week, Vivek Ramaswamy joined a long line of political figures who have—sometimes endearingly, other times bafflingly—performed musical acts.
    by Lora Kelley Aug 18, 2023 4 minutes
    Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy raps to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” at the Iowa State Fair on August 12, 2023.
    Source: Chip Somodevilla / Getty

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    Politics is already a performance. Why also sing?

    First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic:

    A Risk to Their Dignity

    Live music has the power to connect, to make people feel. In the hands of politicians, it also has the power to make them cringe.

    Last weekend, a video of Vivek Ramaswamy, a businessman turned long-shot candidate in the Republican presidential primary, rapping Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” at the Iowa State Fair. (It was not even his first time performing the rap; he used to bust it out during a rendition of “My Funny Valentine” at a White House party in 1998. George W. Bush a parody of “Green, Green Grass of Home” at the Gridiron dinner in 2008. Barack Obama a bit of Al Green at the Apollo Theater in 2012. Colin Powell “Call Me Maybe” with Gayle King that same year. Then-Mayor Pete Buttiegieg with Ben Folds in South Bend, Indiana, in 2015. It’s not just American politicians, either: At the White House state dinner in April, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol the first several bars of “American Pie.” After the surprise performance, President Joe Biden that he had “no damn idea” Yoon could sing.

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