During Paramore’s iHeartRadio Music Festival appearance in September 2024, Hayley Williams turned toward the livestream camera with a message for American voters. She criticized Donald Trump, connected him to Project 2025 and urged people to vote. Viewers far beyond the arena could hear it.
This was part of the 2024 presidential campaign. Keep that date with the clip, and keep Williams’s description of the project attributed to her rather than presenting it as a new finding.
A message during the set
Paramore performed at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on September 20. The festival's own recap identified Big Man, Little Dignity as the song during which Williams made her appeal. The title was sometimes misstated in retellings of the speech.
The set also included Hard Times and covers, with Williams wearing a retro look that the organizer compared to Blondie's Debbie Harry. The political moment was part of that wider performance, rather than a separate campaign rally hosted by the band.
Hulu carried the event, allowing Williams to address viewers who were not in the arena. The camera-facing delivery made the clip easy to separate from the rest of the concert when it circulated online.
What she said about Project 2025
Williams argued that Project 2025 threatened several groups and urged opposition to Trump's agenda at the polls. Those were her political views and her appeal to the audience.
Project 2025 was organized by the conservative Heritage Foundation with policy proposals for a future administration. Trump publicly distanced himself from the project during the campaign. Describing Williams's speech does not require presenting her characterization as a legal finding or treating every proposal as an enacted policy.
Music and the election conversation
The performance came shortly after Taylor Swift publicly endorsed Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Paramore had toured with Swift in Europe, but the artists' individual political statements should not be collapsed into a single organized announcement without evidence.
Williams used her own time onstage to make a voting appeal. The historical account is clear about when and where it happened, which song accompanied it and whose views were being expressed. The archived clip belongs to that 2024 festival and campaign.
