Can the influence of celebrities sway voters when it comes to the US election?
With many of the biggest music and movie stars in the world backing her, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris will certainly be hoping so.
Democrats have long enjoyed a celebrity advantage, which has only grown during Republican Donald Trump‘s rise in politics. However, as Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign showed, star power is not always enough.
According to a recent YouGov poll, about one in 10 Americans (11%) say a celebrity has ever caused them to reconsider their stance on a political issue, while 7% say they have supported a political candidate because of a celebrity endorsement.
As the 2024 US presidential electionapproaches, here are the stars backing each of the two candidates – starting with Ms Harris.
The Avengers
X
This content is provided by X, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable X cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to X cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow X cookies for this session only.
In a clip shared by Hulk star Mark Ruffalo on social media, the Avengers assembled to show their support for Ms Harris.
Black Widow actress Scarlett Johansson, Captain America star Chris Evans, and Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr all feature in the video, along with Don Cheadle and British star Paul Bettany.
Ruffalo cited climate change, education and women’s reproductive rights among the issues voters should consider.
Advertisement
“We’re back,” he captioned the post. “Let’s #AssembleForDemocracy. In the #ElectionEndgame, every vote counts.”
Taylor Swift
Image: Pic: Janet Mayer/ INSTARimages/ Cover Images/ AP 2024
The pop mega star confirmed her support for Ms Harris in September, posting a picture of herself holding her cat Benjamin Button – a reference to Mr Trump’s running mate JD Vance’s “childless cat lady” comments.
Swift told her 283 million followers: “I’m voting for Kamala Harris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”
The action movie star is a former Republican governor of California.
However, he has said he is voting for the Democrats this time, saying: “I will always be an American before I am a Republican.”
In a lengthy post on social media, Schwarzenegger said he did not “like either party right now” and that he does not “really do endorsements”, but felt he had to speak out.
He went on to harshly criticise Mr Trump for rejecting the results of the 2020 presidential vote, saying this was as “un-American as it gets”.
He ended by saying the country needs to “close the door on this chapter of American history, and I know that former President Trump won’t do that. He will divide, he will insult, he will find new ways to be more un-American than he already has been, and we, the people, will get nothing but more anger.”
Jennifer Lopez
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
“You can’t even spell American without Rican,” she responded.
Lopeztold supporters she was “an American woman” and a “proud daughter and son of Puerto Rico”.
Madonna
Image: Pic: Reuters
Pop royalty Madonna revealed she returned home to the US following a trip to Paris to vote for Ms Harris.
Alongside a selection of photos of her time in the French capital, the singer, 66, posted on social media: “Paris was so fun! It was hard to leave, but I had to come home to VOTE Kamala Harris for president!!!!”
Beyonce
Image: Pic: AP
Beyonce appeared at a Democratic rally in Houston, Texas, in October, telling voters: “We need to sing a new song.”
She added: “A mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in, a world where we have the freedom to control our bodies, a world where we’re not divided.”
It came after the singer-songwriter, whose real name is Charlotte Emma Aitchison, wrote in a post on X: “kamala IS brat”.
She later told New York Magazine: “To be on the right side of democracy, the right side of women’s rights, is hugely important to me… I’m happy to help to prevent democracy from failing forever.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:06
Springsteen calls Trump a ‘tyrant’
Rock icon Bruce Springsteen is also among the stars who have appeared at Democratic rallies.
Performing on stage in Clarkston, Georgia, he used time between his numbers to argue Ms Harris will protect democracy and fight for women’s reproductive rights.
“He does not understand this country, its history or what it means to be American,” Springsteen said of Mr Trump.
Eminem
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:34
Obama raps Eminem
The rapper attended a rally in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan, where he introduced Barack Obama.
The former president joked he had “noticed my palms are sweaty” before rapping several lines from the Grammy award-winning artist’s hit song Lose Yourself.
Eminem told the crowd Ms Harris “supports a future for this country where these freedoms and many others will be protected and upheld”.
Image: Pic: Reuters
Billie Eilish, Jennifer Aniston, Samuel L Jackson, Spike Lee and Cher are also among the stars who have endorsed Ms Harris.
Mr Trump’s famous backers might not be as starry, but he has several who hold a deep appeal with his core base of voters.
Here are some of the big names who are supporting the former president.
Muskpreviously supported the Democrats but has become a vocal backer of Mr Trump in recent months, and joined the Republican candidate on stage at a rally in Pennsylvania.
At the event, Musk, who runs Tesla and SpaceX, jumped around on the stage and described the election as a “must-win situation”.
Hulk Hogan
Image: Pic: Reuters
The wrestling star is among the celebrities publicly endorsing Mr Trump, appearing at the Republican National Convention in the summer and at a rally in New York last month.
He told “Trumpamaniacs” at Madison Square Garden that he had won heavyweight titles and body-slammed “giants” there, but the energy at the rally was “something like I’ve never felt”, and “the most powerful force in the universe”.
The retired wrestler, whose real name is Terry Gene Bollea, has shared several photographs of himself and Mr Trump on social media.
Mel Gibson
Image: Pic: AP
Hollywood star Mel Gibson will reportedly be voting for Mr Trump.
According to US entertainment site TMZ, when asked about the election, the actor replied: “I don’t think it’s going to surprise anyone who I’ll vote for.”
He said voting for Mr Trump would be “a pretty good guess”, and reportedly added: “I know what it’ll be like if we let her in and that ain’t good. Miserable track record – appalling track record. No policies to speak of. And she’s got the IQ of a fence post.”
Dennis Quaid
Image: Pic: AP
The US actor, known for films including The Parent Trap and The Day After Tomorrow, gave a speech at a Trump rally in Coachella, California, in October.
“It’s time to pick a side,” he told the crowd. “Are we gonna be a nation that stands for the constitution? Or for Tik-Tok?
“Are we gonna be a nation of law and order? Or wide open borders?”
Jon Voight
Image: Pic: Reuters
Veteran actor Jon Voight, who is Angelina Jolie’s father, has long been a supporter of Mr Trump.
In a video shared on social media, he told his followers: “We’re now in a time of the darkest plague ever. And our chance, our only chance, is this November.”
Voight accused Hollywood peers supporting Ms Harris of “putting out videos trying to brainwash the American people to do the most dangerous vote ever”.
Jake Paul
Image: Pic: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages/ Cover Images/ AP
YouTuber and professional boxer Jake Paul has also shared a video message endorsing Mr Trump.
He captioned the clip, “Who I’m supporting for president and why you should too…” but began by saying he had been “nervous, scared” to make it because of potential repercussions for his career.
Encouraging his followers to do their own research and not just listen to “your favourite pop star”, he said he had rescinded his right to vote after moving to Puerto Rico for his boxing career – but that he wanted to present his millions of followers “with proper facts, numbers and data to encourage them to vote in the proper direction to quite literally save America”.
Things “don’t feel right” in the US at the moment, he said, which shows “that we are more divided than ever”. He added: “What is the problem? Democrats have been in power for 12 of the last 16 years, so if we aren’t happy… then who is to blame?”
Kelsey Grammar
Image: Pic: AP
The Frasier star – who has reportedly spoken of his support for Mr Trump in the past – was asked about being a Republican in Hollywood in an interview with the New York Times in September.
“For me to be anything else would be a problem,” he replied. “I don’t go along with a lot of what is preached in Hollywood. I go along with what is preached in Christianity. I go along with do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
“And I believe in all people: I believe in their desires and their lives and their worth. I want to make shows about that. I don’t want to hate anybody.”
Kid Rock
Image: Pic: AP
The musician has appeared at several Trump rallies and has been vocal in his support for the Republican presidential candidate on social media.
In a recent video, he responded to Eminem’s support for Ms Harris, saying he had been friends with the rapper for years but he does not agree with his politics.
He credited both Eminem and “people like Taylor Swift for standing up and not being afraid to be vocal”, but said his stance is “unequivocally MAGA, because I know in my heart, mind, body and soul that President Trump will make America great again”.
Davina McCall has revealed she has had breast cancer, nearly a year after she had surgery to remove a brain tumour.
The TV presenter revealed the diagnosis in a video posted to her Instagram on Saturday, saying she was “very angry” when she found out, but now is in a “much more positive place” after undergoing surgery to remove the tumour three weeks ago.
“I found a lump a few weeks ago. It came and went but then I was working on The Masked Singer and Lorraine, the TV show, and Lorraine Kelly had put signs on the backs of all the doors saying ‘check your breasts’ and every time I went for a wee, I did that,” she said.
“It was still there, and then one morning I saw myself in the mirror and thought ‘I’m going to get that looked at’. I had a biopsy. I found out it was indeed breast cancer and I had it taken out in a lumpectomy nearly three weeks ago.”
McCall, 58, said the “lump” was “very, very small” and was discovered early.
Image: Davina McCall said she had surgery to remove the “lump” three weeks ago. Pic: PA
“I am so relieved to have had it removed and to know that it hasn’t spread. My lymph nodes were clear, I didn’t have any removed, and all I’m going to do now is have five days of radiotherapy in January as kind of an insurance policy,” she explained.
The former Big Brother presenter thanked her medical team, family and fiance for their support, before adding: “It’s been a lot. I was very angry when I found out, but I let go of that, and I feel in a much more positive place now.
More on Davina Mccall
Related Topics:
“I think my message is: get checked if you’re worried. Check yourself regularly. If you are due a mammogram, then get it done.
“I have dense breasts and I had a mammogram in August, and I was postponing the ultrasound; I just couldn’t find time to do it. Don’t do that. Get the ultrasound.”
Her breast cancer diagnosis came nearly a year after McCall revealed that she had a benign brain tumour, a colloid cyst, which she described as “very rare”.
Image: McCall revealed last November that she had a benign brain tumour. Pic: PA
She said in a video posted in November last year that chances of having it were “three in a million” and that she had discovered it several months previously after a company offered her a health scan in return for giving a menopause talk.
McCall rose to fame presenting on MTV in the mid-1990s, and later on Channel 4’s Streetmate, before becoming a household name as the host of Big Brother from 2000 to 2010.
She’s gone on to present programmes across the networks, and currently presents ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad.
In recent years, McCall has spoken regularly on women’s health and the effects of menopause in a bid to break taboos around the subject. Her 2022 book, Menopausing, won book of the year at the British Book Awards.
Image: McCall’s brain cancer was found after she was offered a health check-up as part of her menopause advocacy work. Pic: PA
The same year, McCall fronted the Channel 4 documentary Davina McCall: Sex, Mind And The Menopause, and told the BBC that perimenopausal symptoms caused her difficulties multi-tasking and she considered that she had a brain tumour or Alzheimer’s disease at the time.
In 2023, she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to broadcasting.
The presenter has previously raised money for Cancer Research UK by running the Race For Life in honour of her late sister, Caroline Baday, who died from lung cancer in 2012 at the age of 50.
Kendrick Lamar is leading this year’s Grammy nominations, up for nine trophies, including record, song and album of the year.
The 38-year-old swept last year’s awards, taking home five gongs for his hit dis track Not Like Us.
The varied bag of Grammynominees – featuring big names and a few surprises – also saw K-pop stars, a knighted British rocker and a Hollywood leading man make it into the Grammy competition.
Image: Lady Gaga earlier this year. Pic: AP
Lady Gaga (who is up for record, song and album of the year too), Jack Antonoff and Canadian record producer-songwriter Cirkut follow Lamar with seven nominations each.
Sabrina Carpenter got six nods, matching her nomination tally for last year.
More on Grammys
Related Topics:
Alongside Lamar’s GNX, other albums to make it into the best album category this year include Lady Gaga’s Mayhem and Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos (only the second all-Spanish language album to be nominated in the category, following the Puerto Rican rapper’s 2023 all-Spanish album Un Verano Sin Ti).
They are all potential first-time winners in the category.
Image: Sabrina Carpenter is up for six awards. Pic: AP
Also up for the top album prize are Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend, Justin Bieber’s Swag, Clipse, Pusha T & Malice’s Let God Sort Em Out, Leon Thomas’s Mutt, and Tyler, the Creator’s Chromakopia.
Despite releasing a new album earlier this year, Taylor Swift, didn’t make it on to the best album nominees as The Life Of A Showgirl came out after the close of the eligibility period. The window ran from 31 August 2024 to 30 August 2025.
Image: Rosé from Blackpink. Pic: AP
K-pop gets its moment
With K-pop typically ignored by the Grammys (BTS are the only K-pop artists to previously get a nod) this year saw two K-pop tracks in contention for best song.
Golden, the lead track from global phenomenon KPop Demon Hunters and APT, the megahit by former Blackpink member Rosé alongside Bruno Mars, both made it on to the list.
Rosé got nods in four other categories, including best record, while KPop Demon Hunters got three other nominations, including in the best pop duo/group performance category.
Image: Lola Young is up for best new arist. Pic: Amy Harris/Invision/AP
British artist Lola Young, who is the niece of acclaimed children’s writer Julia Donaldson, got a nod in the best new artist category, alongside Olivia Dean. Both topped the UK charts this year.
They will compete against KATSEYE, The Marias, Addison Rae, sombr, Leon Thomas and Alex Warren. Last year the category was won by Good Luck, Babe! singer Chappell Roan.
Image: Sir Elton John in Never Too Late. Pic: Walt Disney Pictures
Timothée Chalamet is up for a Grammy
In less expected Grammy news, Sir Elton John also got a nod alongside US singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile for the song Never Too Late, which features on the soundtrack of the 2024 Sir Elton documentary of the same name.
Meanwhile, actor Timothée Chalamet got his first Grammy nod in the best compilation soundtrack for visual media category for his work on Oscar-nominated movie A Complete Unknown, in which he played Bob Dylan.
Image: Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. Pic: Searchlight Pictures 2024
Nominations were announced by past Grammy winners, including Sabrina Carpenter, Doechii and last year’s best new artist winner, Chappell Roan.
Sharon, Kelly and Jack Osbourne came together to announce the rock and metal album nominationsin tribute to Ozzy, who died in July. He had previously won in both categories.
Image: The Osbournes announced the best rock and metal album nominations. Pic: Grammys/Recording Academy
The annual ceremony– which gives out a whopping 95 gongs in total – has four big categories: album, record and song of the year, and best new artist.
Following Beyoncé’s historic win for best album and best country album for Cowboy Carter, this year the country category has been divided into two: best traditional country album and best contemporary country album.
There’s also the new addition of a standalone category for best album cover.
Last year, Beyoncé made history as the Grammy’s most nominated artist, winning album of the year for the first time.
Winners will be chosen by the roughly 15,000 voting members of the Recording Academy.
The 68th Grammy Awards take place on Sunday, 1 February 2026, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Main category nominees
Album Of The Year DeBi TiRAR MaS FOtoS, Bad Bunny Swag, Justin Bieber Man’s Best Friend, Sabrina Carpenter Let God Sort Em Out, Clipse, Pusha T and Malice MAYHEM, Lady Gaga GNX, Kendrick Lamar Mutt, Leon Thomas CHROMAKOPIA, Tyler, The Creator
Record Of The Year DtMF, Bad Bunny Manchild, Sabrina Carpenter Anxiety, Doechii Wildflower, Billie Eilish Abracadabra, Lady Gaga luther, Kendrick Lamar with SZA The Subway, Chappell Roan APT, Bruno Mars and Rosé
Song Of The Year Abracadabra, Lady Gaga Anxiety, Doechii APT, Bruno Mars and Rosé DtMF, Bad Bunny Golden, EJAE, Audrey Nuna and REI AMI luther, Kendrick Lamar with SZA Manchild, Sabrina Carpenter Wildflower, Billie Eilish
Best New Artist Olivia Dean KATSEYE The Marias Addison Rae sombr Leon Thomas Alex Warren Lola Young
Celebrity Traitors star David Olusoga says there was one major flaw in the faithful’s gameplay, and that was having “too much fun”.
The first UK celebrity series of the popular reality show has been a ratings hit since its launch a month ago, wrapping up with a tense finale on Thursday night.
NB. This article contains spoilers related to the final episode
Image: The faithfuls in Celebrity Traitors made one fatal error… Pic: BBC/Studio Lambert/Paul Chappells
Image: Pic: BBC/Studio Lambert/Paul Chappells
Speaking to Sky News’ Anna Jones and Kamali Melbourne on the new Mornings with Jones and Melbourne, Olusoga said: “We were brilliant at the tasks and every day we went out and did what were basically bonding exercises.
“We all really got to know each other, and then we were terrible at the round table because we just liked each other too much.”
The 55-year-old historian says it was a “devilishly difficult game,” admitting he would have been a “terrible” traitor because he “wasn’t very good as a faithful”.
Treacherous Alan Carr was crowned the winner of the show, after a nail-biting roundtable which saw fellow traitor Cat Burns banished, followed by faithful Joe Marler.
More on Bbc
Related Topics:
The celebrities proved to be the worst in the show’s UK history at rooting out the traitors, a fact not lost on Olusoga: “For the most part, it was people sort of not being very good to pointing fingers at each other”.
Respected for his intellect and insight, Olusoga says the show has left him questioning his skill set: “I learned the limits of my kind of my approach to logic, which made a lot of sense to me but didn’t really get me very far.”
Despite many viewers feeling Carr let slip plenty of clues that he was a traitor, Olusoga says he never once suspected him.
Olusoga says: “It was like a double bluff. It was somebody who wasn’t trying to disguise that they were a traitor, therefore, it seemed logical that they weren’t a traitor…
“I think, of all the people, Alan probably got the fewest votes in the entire show. The other thing is, Alan is a national treasure. He’s innately likeable. I think none of us really wanted to believe Alan was a traitor because he had us laughing, we were in stitches the whole time.”
Image: Pic: BBC/Studio Lambert/Euan Cherry
Despite his lack of competitive success on the show, he says it’s an experience he relished.
“It’s very easy to get stuck in your own ruts as an adult, so to be plucked out of your world, to have your phone taken away from you, to be put in this entirely new environment – this amazing, surreal environment, with these amazing people – it was like the first week of university again. It was like starting a new school. That was wonderful.”
Previously a fan of the show, he says being a player was a completely different ballgame: “You really haven’t got a clue… you see patterns in the clouds”.
He also has no regrets about his decision to get involved: “I’ve been asked to do a lot of different shows. And I’ve always said no to all of them. But even before doing it, my view was, Traitors is special”.
Olusoga is currently working on a Remembrance project with Findmypast to archive pictures of fallen soldiers in the First World War.