'The Roots' Will Headline Philadelphia's July 4th Festivities Once Again
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The musical acts have been announced for Philadelphia's Fourth of July week "Welcome America" celebration.
For the third year in a row, Philly's own four-time Grammy Award-winning band "The Roots" will be headlining the festivities.
But there will be lots of other acts involved in a the show as well, including Earth, Wind & Fire; Michael McDonald; Estelle; Sara Bareilles; and DJ Jazzy Jeff.
Also, the members of The Roots are acting as musical directors for the show, and Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson of The Roots explains that they want to give "Welcome America" more of a jam festival atmosphere.
"We kind of want to do it like a Motown revue," he explains. "We'll probably, for the duration of the night, back up somewhere between eight and ten artists. Each act will do somewhere between 15 minutes to a half hour of all their hits. We'll mix and match it, where you might see Estelle do a song with Earth, Wind & Fire, or Sara Bareilles and Michael McDonald do something together."
KYW's Hadas Kuznits speaks with Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson and Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter of The Roots about performances at Philadelphia's Fourth of July Party on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway...
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Reported by Hadas Kuznits, KYW Newsradio 1060
