The 2012 Tampa Bay Host Committee Announces Featured Entertainment and Guest Performances for The Welcome Event

Host Committee Announces Featured Entertainment and Guest Performances for The Welcome Event

The 2012 Tampa Bay Host Committee for the Republican National Convention is pleased to announce its featured entertainment for The Welcome Event, country music sensation Rodney Atkins. Atkins is a six-time nominee with the Academy of Country Music and two-time nominee with the Country Music Association (CMA). His hits include “Take A Back Road,” the title track of his fourth studio album and sixth career number one hit, “If You’re Going Through Hell” and “It’s America.” In addition, Atkins won CMA’s “Top New Male Vocalist” award in 2006.

The combined delegate and media welcome event, which will kick off the week of the Convention on Sunday, August 26, 2012, is the first-of-its-kind in the history of a presidential nominating convention. More than 20,000 guests have been invited to this ground-breaking event. Performances will highlight the local Tampa Bay region in an inaugural, innovative and incredible way.  The acts below, and more, will represent Tampa Bay:

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Cheerleaders
Tampa Bay Rays Street Team
Tampa Bay Lightning’s “Lightning Girls”
University of South Florida’s “Herd of Thunder” Marching Band
Gasparilla pirates and krewes
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay performers and acts
In addition to local musical and dance performances, cirque-style performers, including acrobats, contortionists, rolla bolla artists and animal-themed dancers will perform as a part of “Cirque Dreams,” presented by Busch Gardens Tampa Bay.

“We are excited to showcase Tampa Bay and the many wonderful entertainers that represent our region,” said Host Committee President and CEO Ken Jones. “Guests of The Welcome Event will experience a taste of Tampa Bay’s culture, history and themes, as well as its warm hospitality. We are proud of the Tampa Bay region and all it has to offer. We are excited to show the thousands of convention guests the Tampa Bay we know and love.”

Also performing at The Welcome Event are former competitors and national recording artists from two top network reality shows, both with ties to Tampa Bay:

Shannon Magrane, from the eleventh season of Fox’s “American Idol”
Karla Davis, from season two of NBC’s “The Voice”