{"id":199621,"date":"2026-05-22T07:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T07:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/199621\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T07:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T07:00:11","slug":"christina-aguilera-will-smith-jill-scott-to-headline-free-july-4-concert-in-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/199621\/","title":{"rendered":"Christina Aguilera, Will Smith, Jill Scott to headline free July 4 concert in Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christina Aguilera, Jill Scott and Will Smith will be among the performers at Philadelphia’s 2026 Wawa Welcome America concert as\u00a0the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary<\/a>\u00a0on the Fourth of July.<\/p>\n

The Roots will also perform and produce part of the free event on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Mayor Cherelle Parker said during a press conference Thursday.<\/p>\n

Comedian Wanda Sykes will host the night. State Property, Kathy Sledge, Infinity Song and Seal will also perform. Smith will perform with DJ Jazzy Jeff.<\/p>\n

Wallo267 and Gillie Da King<\/a>\u00a0will also be part of the event, and Parker said more people could be added to the show.<\/p>\n

Parker said she wanted a lineup that is “unmistakably Philadelphia.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Aguilera has ties to the Keystone State, having grown up in Western Pennsylvania.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The mayor said she hopes this is more than just a concert.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I can’t think of a better tool than art, culture, and music in particular, to bring people from all walks of life together,” Parker said.<\/p>\n

The concert starts at 5p.m., and a fireworks display is also planned for 11:45 p.m. Gates are set to open at 3 p.m.<\/p>\n

Organizers promised 2026’s celebrations would be the biggest the city has seen<\/a>. The July 4 concert, which Parker called the “One Philly: Unity Concert for America,” is the finale of 16 days of festivities, including a June 30 Pride concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Trixie Mattel, the July 2 Salute to Service show headlined by Queen Latifah, and a concert featuring Idina Menzel and the Philly POPS.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The annual Independence Day concert on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway has drawn big names to Philadelphia in the past, including\u00a0Ludacris<\/a>,\u00a0Pitbull<\/a>, Ne-Yo and Lauryn Hill. The headliners in 2025, LL Cool J and Jazmine Sullivan, pulled out at the last minute<\/a> as workers from city union AFSCME DC 33 were in the middle of a strike.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LL Cool J later appeared at a New Year’s Eve event on the Parkway<\/a> alongside Adam Blackstone, DJ Jazzy Jeff and Dorothy.<\/p>\n

This year also marks Wawa Welcome America’s 35th anniversary.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christina Aguilera, Jill Scott and Will Smith will be among the performers at Philadelphia’s 2026 Wawa Welcome America…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[40018,43518,69,71,70,88248],"class_list":["post-199621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-4th-of-july","tag-america-at-250","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-will-smith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199621","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=199621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}