Chance The Rapper, The National Will Perform At Obama's Global Summit In Chicago

By Stephen Gossett in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 13, 2017 6:30PM

Matt Berninger of The National performs at Glastonbury Festival 2017 / Getty Images / Photo: Ian Gavan

A day after we got a peek at a selection of the speakers and facilitators who'll be appearing at the inaugural Obama Foundation Summit, the organization revealed three of the musical artists who will perform at the summit's closing event: Chance the Rapper, The National and Gloria Estefan.

The concert will take place on November 1 at 8:30 p.m. and is being curated by Chance the Rapper, the Chatham-native hip-hop fave said in a video announcement on Friday. More artists will be announced in the near future. Chance said he was stoked to see the other announced artists along with "well, I can't say now, but all my friends that are coming."

Ticket information has not yet been made public, but you can sign up for update emails from the Foundation here. The concert will also be livestreamed.

Watch: @ChancetheRapper has a special announcement about the first-ever #ObamaSummit. https://t.co/f1vx5FPLl2 pic.twitter.com/EaJ5XxJUoJ
— The Obama Foundation (@ObamaFoundation) October 13, 2017

Obama has known Chance of course since the rapper was a child. Chance's father, Ken Bennett, is an Illinois political veteran who once served in Rahm Emanuel's administration. Obama delivered Chance a video congratulations after the rapper served as grand marshall of this year's Bud Billiken parade.

The president and The National go back, too, although not quite as far. The Obama campaign used the band's song "Fake Empire," and the group played Obama rallies and stump appearances in 2008, 2010 and 2012. The National in 2008 also sold t-shirts and pins that sported the title of their fan-favorite song "Mr. November" that supported Obama's campaign. "We could not be prouder to support President Obama and his foundation’s goal to encourage and empower young people around the world to create positive change in their communities," the band said in an Instagram post on Friday.

A few nights ago, we were honored and excited to receive a personal phone call from President @barackobama, inviting us to participate in the closing event of the @ObamaFoundation Summit on November 1st in Chicago. . Of course, we said yes. . We could not be prouder to support President Obama and his foundation’s goal to encourage and empower young people around the world to create positive change in their communities. . The event will be live streamed at Obama.org. . In order to accommodate President Obama’s request, we risked having to cancel our shows in Brussels. But we know how supportive our fans and the people of Brussels have always been to us, so instead we’ve decided to move our performances to one LARGE concert at Forest National, on 9 November - on sale Wednesday 18 October at 10am. . Tickets to the 30 + 31 October Bozar shows will be refunded, but purchasers will be emailed by Tele Ticket Service about an exclusive window to buy tickets to the Forest National performance before the general public. . We look forward to seeing you there! . -The National

A post shared by The National (@thenational) on Oct 13, 2017 at 9:19am PDT

The Obama Foundation Summit takes place from Oct. 31 through Nov. 1 and aims "to exchange ideas, explore creative solutions to common problems, and experience civic art, technology, and music from around the world," according to the Foundation.

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