Springsteen, Other Acts Confirmed for Inaugural Concert

The rumors were true: the Presidential Inaugural Committee has released the list of confirmed performers for what's being called We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial, scheduled to air on HBO on Sunday, January 18 from 7-9 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. There's no set start time for the concert itself yet, just a note that it will be taped on Sunday afternoon. (NB: We've updated this paragraph to clarify the concert schedule).

UPDATE: It's looking like the concert will begin at 2 p.m.

Confirmed musical performers include: Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Bono, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, Heather Headley, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles, John Mellencamp, Usher Raymond IV, Shakira, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, will.i.am, and Stevie Wonder.

That's a long list of performers for a 2-hour concert, so expect one or two songs tops from each artist.

Also announced was a list of speakers and individuals who will read historical passages: Jamie Foxx, Martin Luther King III, Queen Latifah and Denzel Washington. The Rt. Reverend V. Gene Robinson will give the invocation. Additional performers will be announced as they are confirmed.

We're thrilled to see the Boss on the final lineup, and many others (Bono! Stevie Wonder! Beyonce! Mary J. Blige!) are also fantastically awesome. The likes of Garth Brooks and Josh Groban are apparently just par for the course when designing something aimed at appealing to the entire country, so we suppose we'll take what we can get.