Beyonce, Usher, Mary J. Blige Billed To Perform At Inaugural Concert

The event will kick-off a series of events set to follow.

More than a dozen other music stars will kick off Barack Obama's presidential inaugural festivities by performing at the opening celebration at Washington D.C.'s Lincoln Memorial. The We Are One opening celebration opens a four-day schedule of Inaugural events that will include 10 official Inaugural Balls, as well as an Inauguration-Day-eve youth concert at the Verizon Center. (Billboard)

There will be a strong line-up of star-studded guests.

Performers include Stevie Wonder, Renee Fleming, Garth Brooks, Mary J. Blige, Herbie Hancock, Heather Headley, John Legend, Sheryl Crow and Jennifer Nettles. Historical passages will be read by Jamie Foxx, Martin Luther King III, Queen Latifah and Denzel Washington, with other celebrities expected to join them. (Associated Press)

Despite mega celebrities, the event will not focus on them.

"We're never going to say, 'Ladies and gentlemen, let's give it up for Beyonce, and she's going to come out and sing one of her songs," Don Mischer, one of the producers, said. "It's going to be connecting music to history and ideas and American values." (Washington Post)

We Are One will be broadcast.

HBO will televise the show at 7 p.m. EST on Sunday, January 18, on an open feed, meaning the pay cable network will offer the telecast for free to cable and satellite customers. (Access Hollywood)