Since fact-checking the claims President-Elect Donald Trump makes on Twitter has become a full-time job for many, it’s time to do a little digging into his latest, music-related tweet. Given the struggle the Trump administration has already faced to find musical talent to perform at his inauguration, and Trump’s subsequent displeasure with the situation, it makes sense that he’d try to big up the one teenager who is confirmed.
Jackie Evancho's album sales have skyrocketed after announcing her Inauguration performance.Some people just don't understand the "Movement"
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 4, 2017
See his tweet above, which came this afternoon, claiming that sixteen-year-old Jackie Evancho’s album sales spiked since she signed on to sing the National Anthem for his swearing in ceremony. As journalist Parker Molloy quickly pointed out, this is not only false, the opposite is in fact true — though it probably has little to do with Trump.
https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/816732818776739845
To be fair, it was a Christmas album (which makes sense that sales would spike after/around when she accepted the Trump gig — xmas).
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) January 4, 2017
But no, for what it’s worth, her album sales have not “skyrocketed.”
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) January 4, 2017
Yes, Evancho’s holiday album Someday At Christmas has in fact dropped on the charts following the holiday, even if it did receive a spike in sales during the week of due to a TV performance and the bump from Christmas itself. As Billboard reporters themselves pointed out, the bump up was congruent with normal holiday sales spikes, and nothing from Evancho’s discography has had a major return to the top end of the charts since her performance was announced.
Molloy also pointed out that the teenage opera singer, who is a veteran America’s Got Talent contestant, has a transgender sister who has written about her experience of coming out in a moving piece for Teen Vogue, which makes Jackie’s decision to perform for Trump — whose running mate openly supports the harmful practice of conversion therapy, which has been outlawed and sanctioned as dangerous by the Human Rights Campaign — even more puzzling.
