{"id":199090,"date":"2026-05-21T18:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T18:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/199090\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T18:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T18:15:07","slug":"philly-to-host-christina-aguilera-will-smith-the-roots-at-july-4-gig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/199090\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly to Host Christina Aguilera, Will Smith, the Roots at July 4 Gig"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSome of Pennsylvania\u2019s finest performers will ring in America\u2019s 250th birthday<\/a> in the vicinity of the Liberty Bell this summer as part of an event dubbed One Philly: Unity Concert for America. Keystone State representatives include Christina Aguilera<\/a>, Will Smith<\/a> and Jazzy Jeff<\/a>, the Roots<\/a>, Jill Scott, Kathy Sledge, and State Property. Artists who cannot claim to be \u201cWest Philadelphia, born and raised,\u201d include Seal and Infinity Song. Wanda Sykes, who lives near Philly, will host the six-hour concert, which will take place on Philadelphia\u2019s Benjamin Franklin Parkway on (naturally) July 4.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe event, which producers describe as \u201ca nonpartisan celebration of unity, diversity, and democracy,\u201d will be free and open to the public. The concert\u2019s organizers, which include Questlove<\/a>, Scott Mirkin, and Shawn Gee, hope for One Philly to be the largest free concert in the country. The official hosts for the event are the City of Philadelphia and ESM Productions. Plans to broadcast the event will be announced at a later date.<\/p>\n

\n\tGates will open at 3:00 p.m., and the concert will begin two hours later. A fireworks show, which will light up above the Philadelphia Museum of Art, will begin at 11:45 to close out the festivities. Full information about the event is available on the City of Philadelphia\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTo help create a celebration for America\u2019s 250th anniversary \u2014 in Philly, where the country\u2019s story began \u2014 is an incredible honor,\u201d Mirkin said in a statement. \u201cOur goal is to deliver a production experience that feels both global in scale and deeply rooted in the spirit of Philly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOur Fourth of July concert is a historic homecoming for many of our City\u2019s brightest stars,\u201d Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker said in a statement. \u201cBy uniting the vision of our Mayor\u2019s office and so many other city leaders, the global broadcast and production of Scott Mirkin, and the unmatched musical legacy of the Roots and Live Nation Urban, the One Philly Unity Concert For America will celebrate the soul of Philadelphia and the spirit of our nation on a truly global scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn honor of America\u2019s 250th birthday, Rolling Stone tapped great Americans<\/a> to celebrate some of our country\u2019s gifts to the world, including Barack Obama, the Kid Mero, Chaka Khan, and more. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some of Pennsylvania\u2019s finest performers will ring in America\u2019s 250th birthday in the vicinity of the Liberty Bell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[88246,88247,69,71,70,48535,64610,88248],"class_list":["post-199090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-christina-aguilera","tag-jazzy-jeff","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-questlove","tag-the-roots","tag-will-smith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}