by Dana Gorzelany-Mostak
During a 14
December Today Show appearance,
sixteen-year-old Jackie Evancho announced that she would perform the National
Anthem at Donald Trump’s inaugural ceremony, unleashing a maelstrom of both
adulation and criticism from both sides of the political spectrum.[1]
Fans have framed her upcoming performance as a testament to her patriotism and
ability to unify across party lines, while detractors have derided her as
sellout, has-been, puppet, and pawn. To others, the response was: “Jackie who?”
Jackie
Evancho, a Pennsylvania native, won the hearts of audiences across the nation
with her performance of Puccini’s go-to soprano aria “O mio babbino caro” on
the fifth season of America’s Got Talent
in 2010. Taking home second place, the ten-year-old classical crossover singer soon
after embarked on a meteoric rise to international stardom. She appeared
alongside several heavyweight pop and classical music performers, released a
handful of chart-topping CDs, performed solo concerts at elite venues,
including Avery Fisher Hall, and participated in televised concerts with songwriter/producer
David Foster, not to mention high profile performances for dignitaries, world
leaders, and even Oprah. Evancho’s
commercial and critical success thus far is both impressive and unprecedented.
Jackie Evancho performs on America’s Got Talent (2010)[2]
Indeed many JME
fans are highly anticipating Evancho’s inaugural performance, but I would wager
to guess that no musicology nerd out there jumped for joy quite to the same
degree that I did upon hearing this news. Let me explain: Campaign music is my
primary scholarly interest (I run Trax on the Trail, a website that catalogues music usage on the 2016 campaign trail); child
“opera” singers are my secondary interest (I published an article on Evancho with
Routledge in early 2016). Never did I think my two research worlds would
collide in such a manner. Nevertheless, this convergence has afforded me to the
opportunity to revisit my earlier work and investigate how we might hear the
now sixteen-year-old Jackie Evancho in the era of Donald Trump.
***
Focusing on
the first three years of Evancho’s career, my Voicing
Girlhood in Popular Music article investigated how the artist alternatively
embodied and rejected three complex and contested subject positions—prodigy,
diva, and ideal girl.
Despite her commercial success, a vocal cadre of critics,
journalists, and bloggers have not always been kind to Jackie Evancho. Classical crossover’s excessive
sentimentality and reliance on stage magic and spectacularity often provoke the
disdain of critics from the worlds of both popular music and opera, but perhaps
the vitriol has just as much to do with the singer’s age and gender. Young
girls frequently become the scrutinized objects of the public’s gaze, and their
behavior the impetus for public policy and debate.[3]
Star status places Evancho in the thick of such patriarchal surveillance. In a cultural landscape where the identity
category of “girl” and the cluster of behaviors customarily defined as
“girlish” are frequently devalued, mocked, and marginalized, the singer’s tween
status only adds fuel to the critical fire. Moreover, a certain skepticism
emerges when voice and body appear to be in misalignment. Evancho looks like a
child, but to use Maria Sciullo’s words, commands the stage with the voice of
the diva, a female archetype that the public both worships and reviles.[4]
Throughout history prodigies have been received in a similar manner, as the
public would rather dismiss or devalue their accomplishments than accept
evidence of extraordinariness.[5]
In the case of Jackie Evancho—prodigy, diva, and ideal girl—there is indeed
some truth to pop music critic Jon Caramanica’s claim that “[p]recocity is a
shock, a fascination and a curse.[6]
Assuming an
analogous tripartite approach, this essay offers a reading
of three intersecting subject positions occupied by Evancho in 2016—crossover
artist, ideal woman, and true patriot—investigating how recent discourses elevate
her as a symbol of embattled whiteness. While on the surface the
classical crossover singer appears an apolitical choice, the
rhetoric of purity surrounding her biography, repertoire, and vocality allows
her to reinscribe a vision of femininity, whiteness, and patriotic zeal that
perfectly aligns with Republican ideologies.
Critical race
theory positions race as a socially constituted phenomenon that legitimizes structural
inequalities, thereby reinforcing white supremacy and maintaining the
subjugation of people of color. Pre-Trump, being “white” meant one was devoid
of a racialized identity, or unmarked, but as his campaign unfolded, white
became a racial category, albeit a contested one.[7]
Trump’s campaign
platform, which stoked fear over issues such as immigration, gun rights, and
liberal secularism, deftly played into the insecurities of white males
lamenting the loss of their default position of dominance in the socioeconomic
hierarchy. As a group impacted by de-industrialization and outsourcing, this
disenfranchised demographic harbored resentment towards the outgoing
administration, with many perceiving the attendant rise of identity politics,
ethos of multiculturalism, and political correctness as the cultural shifts that
deprived them of their rights, traditions, and economic self determination. Trump
uniquely positioned himself as the antidote to both the inefficacy of
traditional conservativism and the hypocrisy of liberal elitism. But rather
than embracing the full blown rhetoric of white supremacy, he deployed coded
language that appealed to the alt-right without alienating the Republican
Party’s old guard. While the causes (and existence) of this population’s victimization
remain a point of contention, discussions regarding the plight of the
God-fearing white male have indeed dominated election year headlines, and
persist even now as pundits grapple with the election’s surprising outcome.
While a good number of journalists have opined on both white male
disenfranchisement and the rhetorical and communicative strategies that allowed
Trump to appeal to this demographic, there has been less attention to how
Trump’s musical strategy reinforced these efforts. Although she appeared
post-election, Jackie Evancho is a good place to start.
Jackie
Evancho as Crossover Artist
Classical
crossover, a porous genre that straddles the line between pop and classical,
encompasses opera megastars who perform lighter pop and show tunes as well as
pop artists who take on beloved gems from the classical canon.[8] The genre champions accessibility over elitism and
possesses a core repertoire of religious songs, holiday favorites, arias, and
show tunes. Most fans over fifty. Although Trump
relied on classic, hard rock for his rallies—Twisted Sister, The
Rolling Stones, and Aerosmith—he also made use of music from stage and screen,
including tunes from 1980s megamusicals such as Cats, Phantom of the Opera,
and Les Misérables; classical
crossover left its mark as well.
But why might a teenaged classical crossover
artist be a good change of pace for the man who primarily relied on the bombast
of now-geriatric rockers as he walked onto rally stages across America? For
one, classical crossover establishes continuity between the soundtrack of Trump’s campaign and the event that
marks the beginning of his presidency, underscoring his finesse and refinement rather
than his masculine might. Moreover, the genre offers class connotations that
align with both Trump’s and his supporters’ rejection of elitism. Take for
example, Luciano Pavarotti’s recording of “Nessun dorma,” which Trump made use of at
campaign events, much to the chagrin of the late tenor’s estate.[9]
Although the general public may view the Turandot
aria as a touchstone of high culture, its saturation in popular culture and
position in the classical crossover canon, give it the air of the knowable,
familiar, and everyday. Pavarotti’s “Nessun dorma” is opera, but it is
relatable—it is opera for the people. Classical crossover embraces the
spectacularity and stylistic flourishes of opera, yet rejects the pretense,
elitism, and snobbery of the classical music world in hopes generating popular
appeal. Trump has cultivated a similar image for himself throughout the course
of the campaign: he possesses great wealth and highbrow tastes, yet rejects
the pretenses of the wealthy class—he is after all a “blue-collar billionaire.”
While there may indeed be a disconnect between Trump and
the leftist artists whose music he used despite their many protests, classical
crossover, steeped in its own brand of theatricality and artifice, is believably
his authentic music.[10] Evancho,
whose performances display a very old-Hollywood-style of glamour, occupies a
similar middle space. Although early press insisted on framing her
as an “opera singer” she gently corrected them, preferring to align herself with
classical crossover. And with such a strategy, she divorces herself from the
connotations and critical apparatus of opera while claiming her art as a source
of inspiration for the masses—a status reinforced by sobriquets such as
“America’s Sweetheart.” As one gentleman on a fan site
proclaims: Jackie Evancho is “the
soprano for the rest of us.”[11]
Claims of accessibility and universal appeal aside, the consumptive patterns of
the genre point towards a specifically conservative brand of populism, which is
certainly middle-class-specific and racially coded as white.
Luciano Pavarotti Sings “Nessun dorma” in 1994[12]
Jackie Evancho
as Ideal Woman
While race
relations generated robust debates on the trail, so too did Trump’s
relationships and interactions with women. Some pundits predicted his record of
misogynic and sexist remarks would bring on the demise of his campaign, yet
toxic masculinity ultimately propelled him to the office. In a Vox article titled “Why Misogyny Won,”
Emily Crockett turns to recent research on sexism, outlining how two types,
“hostile” and “benevolent,” intersect. While hostile sexism might see men and
women in competition for dominance, benevolent sexism endorses positive, but
patronizing attitudes towards women. “Good women who adhere to patriarchal
standards of beauty and behavior are rewarded with protection and praise,
whereas the “bad” girls are shunned and mistreated because they deserve it.”[13]
This dualism played
out during the Trump campaign, as he displayed both hostile and benevolent sexism at times.[14]
Many
have weighed in on Evancho’s participation in the inaugural festivities, a
performance some see as a tacit endorsement of the president-elect or a ploy
for visibility, but that others see as evidence of the singer’s love of
country. To these folks, Evancho is one of the “good” women—she is always
soft-spoken, deferential, courteous, and poised. Press narratives and visual
media frame her voice as pure, angelic, divine, and transcendent; there is
emphasis on her charity work, her performances for veterans, and her saintly
character. She speaks openly of her Christian
faith and acknowledges
God as the source of her talent. Fans on online
forums even frame the singer with Christological narratives, including
testimonials of miraculous healing. The visual and music-stylistic aesthetic in many of her
televised performances further reinforce narratives of moral rectitude and
feminine beauty. In a recent guest appearance on America’s Got Talent, Evancho is garbed in a feathery white gown
with a backlight casting a crystalline shimmer against her golden, wavy locks
and alabaster skin. The ruins of a white church and two large angel statues
flank her; white smoke billows up from the ground as snow falls from the sky. The
perfect white bodies of ballerinas in traditional tutus add to the ethereal
quality established by the cyclorama. The costuming, along with her small frame
and delicate hand gestures paint a picture of childlike innocence, creating a
somewhat juvenated representation of femininity.[15] While
Evancho’s voice possesses a certain maturity, her fragility as established
through these juvenation strategies “aestheticizes powerlessness,” creates “a
need for adult care,” and ultimately reinforces antiquated gender norms that
mandate female dependency, vulnerability, and purity.[16]
Jackie Evancho's Guest Appearance
on America’s Got Talent (2016)[17]
While it
is not my intention to paint all Evancho fans and supporters with the same
brush, clearly the rhetoric of protection and praise that defines “benevolent
sexism” has shaped some fans’ responses to the public shaming that “SJWs” “lefties,”
“nasty liberal haters,” “elites,” and “sore loser Obummers” have inflicted on her.
These posts position Evancho as a victim and “innocent lamb” in need of her
fans adulation, encouragement, and show of support. One need only look at
Evancho’s official media, unofficial fan pages, and the comment sections of
major news outlets to see legions of fans and supporters praising her for her maturity,
poise, and class in the face of such adversity. At the same time, fans also cite the names of other “less worthy” pop stars
such as Miley Cyrus, who, according to one fan, relies only on “gimmicks” and
“trash,” as a counterpoint to Evancho’s pure voice and wholesomeness. (Although
not framed in explicitly racialized terms, critiques of post-Disney Cyrus’s
antics are often tied to her adoption of performative styles associated with
black culture).[18] Miley may be trash, but Miss Jackie is a
woman worthy of protection.
Jackie
Evancho as True Patriot
Shows
like America’s Got Talent and American Idol deploy a “democratic”
selection process in order to find the talent that defines the very best of
America, the “voice of America” one might say.[19]
Thus, many Americans see Evancho as a national treasure, an image reinforced by
her performances at occasions of civic import. This “All-American-girl narrative” was first established
in the backstory reel that prefaced her
premiere performance on AGT.
Audiences behold the singer against the backdrop of a suburban, distinctly white
American utopia—Evancho
soars on a swing set, horses around with her siblings, and pets a flock of
ducks. Even post-AGT, her official media
assemble a picture of middle-American childhood, with an emphasis on family,
community, and home. A recent New York
Times story on the Trump backlash shows a seemingly candid shot of the
artist and her three siblings curled up on the couch of their finely appointed home.[20]
Jackie Evancho sings “God Bless America” at A
Capitol Fourth (2016)[21]
While critics
have decried Evancho’s inaugural performance as a sell out, her fans see the
performance as a testament to the singer’s deep devotion to her country. They
also point to the fact that she performed at official ceremonies for the Obama administration, which include “O Holy
Night” at the lighting of the National Christmas Tree in 2010. On the surface, the choice of Evancho as inauguration performer might
seem like a politically neutral choice that would appeal across party lines. After
all, she is an under-aged singer (who cannot vote) and performs in a genre
historically considered apolitical. She also has a transgender sister and
supports LGBTQ rights. Evancho
herself reinforced the notion that her performance should not be read as an
endorsement in the Times interview,
stating “I just kind of thought that this is for my country. […] So if people
are going to hate on me it’s for the wrong reason.”[22]
Then later to CBS, “I hope to just kind of make everyone forget about rivals
and politics for a second and just think about America and the pretty song that
I’m singing. I’m hoping that I can bring people together.”[23]
This last remark can alternatively be read as naïve or patriotic, but I would
also argue that issuing a call for listeners to simply “forget” politics is a
luxury only afforded to those with white privilege.
Evancho
and her fans may not consider her performance a political act, but indeed their
understanding of patriotism—one that demands dissenting voices be silenced in favor
of national unity, and one that questions the allegiance of detractors—is by no
means politically neutral. Depending on the vantage point of the listener, politics
can be mapped onto the singer’s past performances as well as her present
remarks. Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again,” suggests that the nation
of the past is superior to the one of the present. Evancho embodies the
pastness Trump espouses. Her glamorous performances are loaded with nostalgia,
an orientation that is established through costuming, repertoire,
orchestration, and vocal style, not to mention the performance of traditional
femininity that I cited earlier. Like Trump’s nonspecific meanderings about “the
way things once were,” Evancho’s music evokes a generalized nostalgia, a sonic
blank slate where the listener can project their own fantasies and fictions of
America’s brighter past, where men were men, women were women, minority voices
silenced, and dissenters thrown to the wolves of HUAC—the House Un-American Activities Committee of the second quarter of the twentieth century that sought to root out the communist presence in the United States.
Jackie Evancho as “The
Best and the Brightest”
Whether it is
classical crossover’s maintenance of middle class accessibility and
relatability, the performance of traditional white femininity, or constructions
of political neutrality that open a space ripe for narratives surrounding
America’s less multicultural past, what ties together all of these debates over
Evancho’s upcoming performance is the notion of embattled whiteness. While this conversation is
nothing new, I would argue that the insertion of Evancho into the mix is a game
changer for the Trump campaign, a campaign whose soundtrack foregrounded the
outwardly defiant voices of male artists. Evancho is a game changer because she
has become both the battleground, the pawn, and the blank slate upon which the most
recent tale of embattled whiteness is written. The cyber bullying of Evancho stands as supporting
evidence of white victimhood. But unlike the down-on-their luck, disgruntled
inhabitants of the manosphere, Evancho’s innocence, purity, and traditional white
femininity, elevate her to the status of perfect victim, a status these
“imperfect” men could never achieve. In defending the embattled Evancho against her leftist attackers, the
misogynist candidate himself becomes the the savior of white womanhood, and
gains a symbol who embodies the values embraced by his most ardent supporters. (And
if we are to believe his Twitter, he is the savior of her album sales as well.)[24]Evancho’s rallying fans (primarily men) may not necessarily support a Trump
presidency, but in raising their voices to her defense, they are indeed lending
credence to the Trump era narrative of white victimhood with Evancho as their perfect
proxy.
Jackie Evancho's album sales have skyrocketed after announcing her Inauguration performance.Some people just don't understand the "Movement"— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017
Donald Trump Weighs in on Twitter
As a Jackie Evancho
scholar and fan, I certainly am not
going to argue with the Trump team’s claim that she represents “the best and the
brightest of America,” but as a campaign music scholar, I contend that Jackie Evancho
is the “the best and the whitest of America” as well.
I
would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Justin Patch and Dr. Naomi Graber for
their assistance with this essay, as well as their ongoing support of Trax on the Trail.
[1] Eun Kyung Kim, “‘America’s Got
Talent’ Singer Jackie Evancho to Sing at Trump Inauguration,” Today, December
14, 2016,
http://www.today.com/popculture/america-s-got-talent-singer-jackie-evancho-sing-trump-inauguration-t105955.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d_XTvLalJk.
[3]
John Hartley, “‘When Your Child Grows Up Too Fast’: Juvenation and the
Boundaries of the Social in the News Media,” Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 12, no. 1
(1998): 15.
[4] Maria
Sciullo, “Little Girl with Big Voice Charms Millions,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 12, 2010, W-23.
[5]
David Henry Feldman, Nature’s Gambit:
Child Prodigies and the Development of Human Potential (New York: Basic, 1986),
5–6.
[6]
Dana Gorzelany-Mostak, “The Curse of the ‘O mio bambino caro’: Jackie Evancho as Prodigy, Diva, and Ideal Girl,” in
Voicing Girlhood in Popular Music:
Performance, Authority, Authenticity, ed. Jacqueline Warwick and Allison
Adrian (New York and London: Routledge, 2016), 113–14 Also see Jon Caramanica, “(Very) Young Voice, Filling an August Hall,” New York Times, November 8, 2011,
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/arts/music/jackie-evancho-at-alice-tully-hall-review.html?_r=0.
[7] Nell Irvin Painter, “What
Whiteness Means in the Trump Era,” New
York Times, November 12, 2016,
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/13/opinion/what-whiteness-means-in-the-trump-era.html.
[8]
Christopher Newell and George Newell,
“Opera Singers as Pop Stars: Opera Within the Popular Music Industry,” in Opera in the Media Age: Essays on Art,
Technology and Popular Culture, ed. Paul Fryer (Jefferson, NC: McFarland,
2014), 127. For more on classical crossover, see
http://www.classical-crossover.co.uk/help/utrophy-faq/142.html.
[9] Michael Cooper, “Luciano
Pavarotti’s Family Wants Him Off Donald Trump’s Soundtrack,” New York Times, July 22, 2016,
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/arts/music/luciano-pavarotti-donald-trump-soundtrack.html?_r=0.
[10] For more on class identity and
stage & screen music in Trump’s campaign, see Naomi Graber’s article “Do
You Hear the People Sing? Theatre and Theatricality in the Trump Campaign,” American Music special issue,
forthcoming 2017. And for another viewpoint, see Doreen St. Félix, “The Uses of
the Classical: On Jackie Evancho’s Inauguration Performance and the Subtle
Theater of Pop Authoritarianism,” MTV, January 4, 2017, http://www.mtv.com/news/2968672/donald-trump-classical-music/.
[11]
Gordon B., pseud. profile tagline on
the Jackie Evancho Community Forum.
[12] “Pavarotti - Nessun Dorma 1994
(High Quality With Lyrics),” November 4, 2009, video clip, YouTube,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTFUM4Uh_6Y.
[13] Emily Crockett, “Why Misogyny
Won,” Vox, November 15, 2016, http://www.vox.com/identities/2016/11/15/13571478/trump-president-sexual-assault-sexism-misogyny-won.
[14] Ibid.
[15]
For more on this mode of representation see Gaylyn Studlar, Precocious Charms: Stars Performing Girlhood
in Classical Hollywood Cinema (Berkeley: University of California Press,
2012), 92.
[16]
Lori Merish, “Cuteness and Commodity Aesthetics: Tom Thumb and Shirley Temple,”
in Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the
Extraordinary Body, ed. Rosemarie Garland Thomson (New York: New York
University Press, 1996), 187.
[17] “Jackie Evancho: Teenage Opera
Singer Belts ‘Someday At Christmas’ – America’s Got Talent 2016,” December 19,
2916, YouTube, video clip, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EioakNWzi5s.
[18] Daniel O. pseud.
Facebook page, America’s Sweetheart Jackie Evancho.
[19] For more on reality talent shows
and American identity see Katherine Meizel, Idolized:
Music, Media, and Identity in American Idol (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 2011).
[20] See Katie Rogers, “Juliet and
Jackie Evancho, Bonding as Targets in a Trump Media Frenzy,” New York Times, January 11, 2017,
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/arts/music/jackie-evancho-sister-juliet-donald-trump-inauguration.html?partner=IFTTT&_r=0.
[21] “Jackie Evancho - God Bless
America - A Capitol Fourth 2016,” July 4, 2016, YouTube, video clip, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bi7ncIp9M8.
[22] Rogers, “Juliet and Jackie
Evancho.” In August 2015, Evancho released a cover of Ed Sheeran’s “All of the
Stars;” its accompanying video was a thoughtful salute to transgender youth, a
cause close to the singer’s heart. This complicates the notion of Evancho as
apolitical, but due to space considerations I am not going to unpack it here.
[23] “Jackie Evancho and Sister
Juliet on Bonds and Bullying,” CBS News, January 15, 2017,
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jackie-evancho-and-sister-juliet-on-bonds-and-bullying/.
[24] Jason Lipshutz and Keith Caulfield,
“Fact-Checking Donald Trump’s Claim About Jackie Evancho’s Album Sales,” Billboard, January 4, 2017,
http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7646982/donald-trump-jackie-evancho-album-sales-fact-check-skyrocket.
Dana Gorzelany-Mostak is an Assistant Professor of Music at
Georgia College. She holds a PhD in musicology from McGill University,
and she has taught courses on the history of western music, opera in the
21st century, music and politics, music since 1900, popular music, and
historiography. Her research explores various facets of American musical
culture—the role of popular songs in presidential campaigns, the
reception of music prodigies in the age of reality television, and the
untold history of music performance on the “freak” show stage in the
19th century. Additional research interests include opera and popular
culture, public musicology, and music entrepreneurship.
Gorzelany-Mostak's research on music and electoral politics appears in
the summer 2015 issue of Music & Politics and the May 2016 issue of
the Journal of the Society for American Music. Her work on Jackie
Evancho appears in the edited volume Voicing Girlhood in Popular Music:
Performance, Authority, Authenticity (Routledge, 2016). She is the
creator and co-editor of Trax on the Trail, a website that catalogues
the use of music on the 2016 campaign trail.
