Artists on the program for Monday evening at the RNC

Since his 2016 campaign, former President Trump has struggled to win the support of well-known musicians and entertainers – and tonight’s opening convention program suggests the current political season has been no easier for him in that regard.

The special musical guest on the opening night of the RNC is country singer Chris Janson, who also performed at the Republican convention eight years ago.

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Janson is not a particularly well-known artist among mainstream audiences: the highest position he has ever reached on the Billboard Hot 100 charts is number 41, twice (in 2015 for his song “Buy Me a Boat” and again in 2020 for the song “Done”), while Buy me a boat reached number 18 on the Billboard 200 album charts nine years ago.

Also on the agenda tonight: Amber Rose, model/reality TV star/influencer/former rapper and former partner of one-time Trump ally Kanye West. In 2016, she gave an interview to The Cut in which she called Trump an “idiot” and expressed her fervent desire that he not be elected.

Since then, however, she appears to have done a U-turn, although she has yet to publicly say why. In May, she posted a photo of herself posing with the former president and Melania Trump on Instagram. In a video posted on social media last month, she cooed “MAGA, baby!” while displaying Trump-related posturing.

This story originally appeared as part of the NPR Network Live coverage from the RNC.

Copyright: NPR