The Turning Point USA All-American Halftime show kicked off Sunday night to millions of fans who streamed the patriotic event online, an alternative to Bad Bunny’s Spanish-only Super Bowl 60 intermission that ended with the Puerto Rican pop star making a politically charged immigration message.
“Welcome to the Turning Point USA All-American Halftime show. And this one’s for you, Charlie,” host Jack Posobiec said, honoring Turning Point USA’s late founder Charlie Kirk, before a rousing electric guitar rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” was played by Brantley Gilbert.
Gilbert got the concert started with a patriotic version of “Real American,” followed by a powerful rendition of Jason Aldean’s “Dirt Road Anthem.”
Gabby Barrett emerged from a near-pitch black space in the stage while the audience erupted in applause, as she opened with her massive hit “I Hope.” The country crooner followed that up with “The Good Ones.”
The YouTube stream was hovering around four and half million live viewers just as Lee Brice’s seven-minute set kicked off. That number jumped to over five million viewers as Brice began belting out lyrics from his mega hit “Drinking Class.”
Before his next song, Brice honored Charlie Kirk, saying “Charlie, he gave people microphones so they could say what was on their mind. This is what’s on mine.” Brice lifted his guitar and sang his new edgy, politically charged track called “Country Nowadays.”
“Country Nowadays” lyrics:
It ain’t easy being country in this country nowadays
The direction the fingers point when everything goes up in flames
Saying I’m some right wing devil ’cause I was red letter Jesus raised
It ain’t easy being country in this country nowadays
Brice ended his set with a hard-charging rendition of his hit “Hard to Love.”
Up next was Kid Rock, who came on to close and he brought the energy to a new height with his classic track “Bawitdaba,” before switching the mode to mellow as he covered Cody Johnson’s #1 smash hit “Til You Can’t.” Rock added his own verse to the song, in which he evangelized about reading the Bible and serving Jesus Christ.
“There’s a book sitting in your house somewhere that could use some dusting off / There’s a man who died for all our sins hanging from the cross / You can give your life to Jesus and he’ll give you a second chance / Till you can’t,” Kid Rock sang.
The Kirk tribute played on the screen showing viewers a montage of photos of Kirk and his widow, Erika Kirk and their children.
Jerome Hudson is Breitbart News Entertainment Editor and author of the book 50 Things They Don’t Want You to Know About Trump. Order your copy today. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter and instagram@jeromeehudson
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