On this occasion in the United States every year, people (are supposed to) stop to honor those who lost their lives serving our country. My guess is that when the “holiday” first started, there was probably an overwhelming emphasis on literally being in remembrance of those folks who we lost in combat.
As the years have gone on, sure, banks close and so does the post office, but people seem to otherwise think of it as, “the unofficial start of summer” and they go buy hot dogs and macaroni salad and/or plan a day at the beach.
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Hmm, I’m not sure how that represents the original meaning behind Memorial Day?
Singers clamor for the opportunity to get a national anthem gig at a Memorial Day event. Some of them, sadly, want to get paid for it (keep in mind that not even the A-lister at the Super Bowl gets a dime for performing the “Star Spangled Banner”) and then also blow it up on their social media as though they just headlined a stadium show, conveniently leaving off why they actually are pictured in front of a huge crowd.
Do you know the Lee Greenwood song, “God Bless the USA”? The one where he sings, “And I’m proud to be an American”? I challenge the folks in the paragraph above to embrace the red, white, and blue and not make the day about them.
It’s interesting, though. I have been at a sporting event or watched one on TV and taken interest in the talent of the person performing the anthem, so much so that I’ve tried to look them up online to see who they are and what they’re doing music-wise. It amazes me that you can track down one of these talented singers and their Instagram is private. If you’re trying to make a go of it in entertainment, you’ve got to be reachable.
Still others have had a way of being contacted and while I’ve sent them an exploratory inquiry, they don’t write back. At all.
It has also been interesting to me to hear an artist’s rep say that great care was being taken to not paint the performer as solely focusing on serving a military audience. Really? Is that a case of, “Memorial Day, 4th of July, September 11th, and Veterans Day, we are there! But beyond that, don’t call us, we’ll call you”?
Are you someone who’s trying to use a military I.D. to get in somewhere, yet the connection is your ex who you divorced 15 years ago?
Maybe we need to use Memorial Day to hit the reset button and ask ourselves if those who lost their life to preserve our freedom would be happy with people seeing how they could use the occasion for their own personal monetary and/or commercial gain.
This is 2026 and a year-long America250 celebration is happening, marking the sestercentennial of the U.S. (It’s also known as the semiquincentennial or the bisesquicentennial.) There is a tour that started back in January and lots of events happening throughout the year and across the nation to coincide with this historic anniversary. Understandable. However, the red, white, and blue has to be at the heart of all of this – not just, “Oh, yeah, there’s a flag flying way out there at the top of that post.”
I remember being a young boy and marching with my fellow cub scouts in the Memorial Day parade. It was a big deal – for us kids and for the village I lived in. We did it with reverence, knowing what we were saluting that day.
If you’re performing today and five years from now someone asks you about the event, I hope you won’t tell them all about what you did and the performance you put on but rather point instead to what took place to truly remember the brave people who gave their lives for our country.
It’s weird but the temptation is to close with “Happy Memorial Day,” but even that seems contradictory to the emotions that we should have today. Sadly, it gets thrown around as a formality with no real sense of awareness. Let’s do better. And not just for how it will look on social media.
A Member of the Recording Academy, I have been helping indie music artists, authors, actors, entrepreneurs, podcasters, filmmakers, small business owners, and more for over twenty years. What challenges are you having in your creator career that I can lend some insight to? Connect with me so you can take advantage of all my experience, and I can help and keep you moving forward.