In back-to-back events just days before Election Day, comedian Chris Rock and legendary singer-songwriter and Florida resident Jimmy Buffett held free concerts and rallies in the battleground state to urge Floridians to cast their votes for Barack Obama on November 4. Early voting ended on November 1 in most Florida counties.
Rock’s “Chris Rock the Vote Rally for Change” was held on November 1 at Cyrus Green Park in Tampa. Buffett’s unrelated “Last Chance for Change” concert and rally was performed on November 2 at Ford Amphitheatre, also in Tampa.
Since Obama announced his candidacy, some of the music community’s biggest artists have shown their support for Obama with benefit events, including Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, surviving members of the Grateful Dead, Bon Jovi, Melissa Etheridge, Usher, and James Taylor, who staged five free benefit concerts in North Carolina earlier this month.
Former Hillary Clinton supporter Barbra Streisand came on board after Obama secured the Democaratic Party’s presidential nomination. Tickets for Streisand’s September 16 fundraiser performance at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA, were $2,500 per person.
