While President Barack Obama may have lost the support of a couple of celebrities recently, his longtime supporter and “California Gurl” Katy Perry is sticking by his side.
The “Birthday” singer performed at a White House event Thursday night for Special Olympians and pool reports indicated that the event was certainly a star-studded affair to remember.
A number of notable athletes, politicians and musicians attended the event, including Stevie Wonder, Andy Roddick, Scott Hamilton, Dikembe Mutombo, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, David Axelrod, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Rep. Peter King, Rep. Xavier Becerra, Sen. Tom Harkin and Oprah’s best friend Gayle King.
“It is not often that you get Dikembe Mutombo, Steve Case, Stevie Wonder all in the same room. In fact, that may be the first time that they were ever in the same sentence,” Obama said during his remarks.
“We have just one of my favorite people performing tonight — Katy Perry. We are so grateful to her. I love Katy Perry. She is just a wonderful person. I’ve just met her mom and now I know why she is such a wonderful person, but I just want everybody to know she is on tour right now and so for her to take time out to do this is really special and so we really want to say thank you to her for doing this.”
Apparently Perry has changed her mind about allowing her mom to accompany her to Obama-related events. She previously banned her mom from Obama’s 2012 inauguration because her mom is a Republican.
According to the pool report, Andy Roddick and Maria Shriver sat at the first lady’s table and Kareem Abdul Jabbar sat at Obama’s table. Katy Perry “looked fantastic” at a separate table with her mom.
Perry dedicated her song “Roar” to “the unified generation” and said the Special Olympians in the room are the people “who inspire me.”
During the performance, Barack and Michelle sat in the front row with Gayle King. Pool reports said the first lady was “clapping and grooving.”
She might get a chance to use those moves during the 2016 campaign. Katy Perry has already offered to write a theme song for Hillary Clinton if she runs for president.
