This year’s National Memorial Day Concert: A Night of Remembrance on PBS will feature a few faces familiar to country music fans in the lineup, with Alan Jackson, Mickey Guyton and Vince Gill all set to perform during the annual show. The National Memorial Day Concert: A Night of Remembrance will air on Sunday, May 30, the evening before Memorial Day, at 8 p.m. ET on PBS.
The concert will be hosted by actors Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise and will include appearances from General Colin Powell, Gladys Knight, Sara Bareilles, Denyce Graves, The Four Tops, Steve Buscemi, Joe Morton, Brian d’Arcy James, Kathy Baker, Mary McCormack, Bailee Madison and the National Symphony Orchestra. Guyton will perform the National Anthem to open the show.
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Also participating are members from The U.S. Army Herald Trumpets, The U.S. Army Voices and Army Chorus, The Soldiers’ Chorus of the U.S. Army Field Band, The U.S. Navy Band Sea Chanters, The U.S. Air Force Singing Sergeants, and Service Color Teams provided by the Military District of Washington, D.C. Due to the pandemic, the traditional live concert on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol will not be held and the special will be pre-taped.
The event “honors the military service and sacrifice of all our men and women in uniform, their families and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country” and has been taking place for three decades. Featured stories during the 2021 concert will include a Vietnam Nurses Tribute, which will be performed by Kathy Baker, 70th Anniversary of the Korean War, portrayed by actor Joe Morton, and 20th Anniversary of 9/11 and Gold Star Families, featuring actors Steve Buscemi, Mary McCormack and Bailee Madison.
The Vietnam Nurses Tribute will “will honor the more than 265,000 women who served during the Vietnam War era and pay special tribute to the sacrifice and heroism of the nurses who served in Vietnam” and share the experiences of Diane Carlson Evans, founder of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial in Washington, D.C. The segment commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the Korean War “will pay tribute to the more than 1.7 million Americans sent to fight in this brutal conflict, and the over 36,000 American lives lost,” while the 20th Anniversary of 9/11 and Gold Star Families will “commemorate the 20 years since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, remembering all those who died that tragic day and in the twenty years since in service to our nation.”
After the concert airs, it will be available to stream online for two weeks on Facebook, YouTube and www.pbs.org/national-memorial-day-concert and available as Video on Demand, May 30 to June 13, 2021.
