Celebrate A Capitol Fourth on America’s 240th

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America is celebrating its 240th Birthday today and the best way to celebrate it is watching your favorite stars pay tribute with the 36th Annual “A Capitol Fourth” tonight on PBS.

A Capitol Fourth is the free annual concert performed on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington DC every July 4th for the past thirty-six years. If you have not watched it, then you are in for a real treat this year.

Tom Bergeron

Dancing with the Stars’ Tom Bergeron hosts his fourth “A Capitol Fourth” tonight and he will send viewers on a spectacular journey as we pay tribute to our great nation.

Smokey Robinson DR4

This year’s performers include 2-time Tony award winner Sutton Foster, Glee’s Amber Riley, The Voice’s Alisan Porter, 80’s icon Kenny Loggins and Motown Legend Smokey Robinson!

Tom Bergeron told us why he kept coming back to host “A Capitol Fourth”. He said “Well, you kind of answered it – it’s a wonderful concert every year. I mean look at this location. If buying real estate is about location, location, and location – come on seriously – for the Fourth of July, what better place to be.”

Scott Hamilton interviews

Scott Hamilton, who won the gold medal in figure skating in the 1984 Winter Olympics, is presenting some of the 2016 Rio Olympians before they head off to the games in a few short weeks offers this advice to them – “Just enjoy every moment. Rely on training know that your body is absolutely 100% ready to go and just let it do what its trained to do. You know, don’t overthink it. It’s just another event – another competition. The result can be life changing.”

Loggins DR1

 

One of the performers of tonight’s concert is the king of the 80’s Soundtracks, Kenny Loggins. He has provided the songs to classic 80’s films like “Top Gun”, “Caddyshack” and his most famous work, “Footloose”. I asked why he had chosen both “Footloose” and his 1997 song “Conviction of the Heart” for the annual concert. Loggins said “Footloose because it’s a TV song that everyone will get up and dance to. That’s my Johnny B. Goode. Conviction of the Heart is really important to me to be able to play that here at the Capitol. You know, this is sort of like the culmination of the message of that song. So, I am really happy I’m able to do that here.”

You can catch all the excitement of “A Capitol Fourth” tonight at 8:00/7:00 pm EST LIVE on PBS from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol.

Check your listings for your local PBS Station

 

About The Author

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Dean Rogers

Editor-in-Chief/Entertainment Reporter

I knew early on that I wanted to take my place among the stars. One day, my mother saw me reading The Washington Post at a very young age. Who would have known that it would be the building blocks of my journey? Since that day, I dedicated my life to learn all that is learnable. I read everything from encyclopedias, to books, to dictionaries, to magazines. I’m also an avid consumer of television, with my favorite genre being game shows. If you’ve seen me on Who Wants to be a Millionaire or Wheel of Fortune, then you know that this interest has served me well!

My unique style of reporting began back in junior high school, when I started to chronicle the events that shaped my life. Whether it was the annual family vacation or the local science fiction convention, I shot numerous pictures and recorded my thoughts so I could truly appreciate the history. During my senior year at Friendly High, I wrote what was to be my first masterpiece, “Advanced Space Academy – A One Week Journey.” I sent the eleven-page article back to the U.S. Space Camp staff. The article was highly praised for being “one of the best written articles in the history of U.S. Space Camp.” From then on, I knew what I wanted to do for rest of my life — to be a reporter.

Since then, I have trained in Broadcast Journalism at Bowie State University (2008) in Bowie, MD earning a B.S. in Communications. I gained experience in news production and editing through field experiences with Bowie Community Media Corporation, Prince George’s Community Television, and Bowie State University Television. I also wrote scripts for a variety of quiz shows for over five years.

As a lifelong movie buff, I now see close to 100 films every year. I took this love of movies to the next step when I became a co-host for Eclipse Magazine TV in the fall of 2005. While at EMTV, I interviewed celebrities, worked red carpets, and attended a wide variety of movie screenings. In January 2009, I took a leap of faith and started my own entertainment news magazine, The Rogers Revue. Shortly afterward, my life-long journey of studying the silver screen and writing about what I learned finally earned me a place in the Washington Area Film Critics Association.

All of this has led me here, giving you the latest entertainment news for the DMV and the entire nation, and I am truly excited for whatever will come next.

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