Jennifer Holliday cancels Trump inauguration performance, apologizes to LGBT community

The drama surrounding Donald Trump's inauguration is not letting up.

Things looked as hopeful as possible (relatively speaking) for the president-elect on Friday, after it was announced that country star Toby Keith, rock band 3 Doors Down and singer Jennifer Holliday were set to perform at his Jan. 19 concert.

However, on Saturday morning, after receiving serious backlash -- especially from fans in the LGBTQ community -- Holliday announced that she will no longer be participating in the event and released a letter apologizing to those she hurt by accepting the offer.

SEE ALSO:Trump inauguration acts announced, because, well, somebody had to do it

After Kevin Fallon, a writer at The Daily Beast, wrote an article on Friday afternoon, entitled, "Jennifer Holliday Will Perform at Trump’s Inauguration, Which Is Heartbreaking to Gay Fans," the Tony-winning Broadway star released a letteraddressed to the LGBTQ community announcing she would be pulling out of the event and apologizing for her "lapse of judgment." 

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In the open letter provided to TheWrap, the DreamGirlsstar explained that she originally made the decision to perform at the inauguration event to continue her tradition of being a "bi-partisan songbird," considering she has sung for Presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush.

"I was asked to sing a song for what was presented to me as the "Welcome Concert For The People"– in my mind I was reflecting on the past times of being asked to sing for presidents and I only focused on the phrase 'For The People'… I thought, For America!" she wrote. "I was honestly just thinking that I wanted my voice to be a healing and unifying force for hope through music to help our deeply polarized country"

Despite her original thoughts, Holliday admitted to fans that she did not take into consideration how her performance at such a controversial political event could be misinterpreted as her showing support for Donald Trump and Mike Pence, and thereby acting against her own personal beliefs and the gay community.

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Now, she is telling Trump, "I'm not going." There's no way she can ever go, no, no, there's no way.

"In light of the information pointed out to me via the Daily Beast article on yesterday, my only choice must now be to stand with the LGBT Community and to state unequivocally that I WILL NOT PERFORM FOR THE WELCOME CONCERT OR FOR ANY OF THE INAUGURATION FESTIVITIES!," she declared.

"I sincerely apologize for my lapse of judgement, for being uneducated on the issues that affect every American at this crucial time in history and for causing such dismay and heartbreak to my fans. Please know that I HEAR YOU and I feel your pain. The LGBT Community was mostly responsible for birthing my career and I am deeply indebted to you… You have loved me faithfully and unconditionally and for so many years you provided me with work even though my star had long since faded."

Since hearing the news, fans of Holliday have already flocked to Twitter to share their relief and crack a few DreamGirls jokes:

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On Friday night Toby Keith, who is also set to perform at the event, told Entertainment Weeklythat despite criticism he's received for his scheduled performance, he stands by his decision.

"I don’t apologize for performing for our country or military," Keith said in a statement to EW. "I performed at events for previous presidents [George W.] Bush and [Barack] Obama and over 200 shows in Iraq and Afghanistan for the USO."

As of right now, in addition to Keith, 3 Doors Down is still slated to perform along with other big(ly) names, you know, like actor (and Angelina Jolie's father) Jon Voight, DJ Ravidrums and The Piano Guys.

But there's still six days remaining before the inauguration, which is plenty of time for folks to reconsider, so Trump and all of his relatives (yes, even Tiffany) better cross their fingers.

UPDATE: Jan. 14, 2017, 3:43 p.m. EST Updated to add comments from Toby Keith.

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