Amayzine

Everything you want to know about yesterday's inauguration

Joe Biden inauguration

Finallyyyyy. What a day yesterday. Here in the Netherlands we hear about a curfew, totally sucks of course, but to be honest I was mainly focused on Biden's inauguration. How would that go? Would there be riots in other cities due to protests (unfounded fear by the way, because there weren't any)? The outfits, the performances, everything around it... Yes, Americans do it better. So wonderfully grand and a tad exaggerated. I. Love. It.

Because what an impressive inauguration it was, I must say. After a somewhat tumultuous (understatement of the century) four years of Trump, I think everyone here was ready for it. And that America for the first time ever gets a woman as VP is of course extra special. The fact that this woman is also African-American and Asian-American makes it even better. Yes, then Kamala Harris when she took her oath, I started to tear up, you know (I'm such a softie with American happenings like this).

And then Joe Biden himself, with his wife Jill by his side, who is so obviously incredibly proud of her husband. What a breath of fresh air after Melania, or the FLOTUS who has done the least. Jill will be the first FLOTUS ever to also hold a job; she is a professor, so you can call her Dr. Biden, but as First Lady we will also see and hear a lot from her.

So it's probably no surprise that she clicks much better with Michelle Obama, who was present with former president Barack Obama. The bromance between Joe Biden and Obama is, I think, one of my favorites: Biden was his VP and even outside of that they have become very close. That was noticeable in everything. Giving each other little punches, a hug (they don't really adhere to social distancing in America, I noticed), the women chatting very relaxed and happily with each other... And wow, Michelle Obama looked stunning. Not that I'm used to seeing her otherwise, but that purple suit really suited her so well.

In my opinion, she almost stole the evening with that. Almost, yes: the real show-stealer was of course Amanda Gorman, the youngest poet ever to recite at the presidential inauguration. My lord, she did that so well. I was captivated from start to finish. “There is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.” Just doing that at 23 years old. It won't surprise you that she went from a modest 150K followers on Instagram to – at the time of writing – 2.2 million. That her books are incredibly popular now, and that there is even talk of her possibly being the president of 2036. I completely agree with that, by the way.

Then the performances, because those were also there this year. Lady Gaga sang the national anthem, and knowing how incredibly cold it actually was there, I think she did that excellently. That dress looked stunning on her (and of course very eye-catching à la Lady Gaga), but she didn't look warm at all. J.Lo sang This Land Is Your Land and I honestly always thought she couldn't really sing, but I clearly had to take that back. She mixed the song with America The Great, threw in some Spanish lines, and if you haven't seen it, it's definitely worth watching again.

I also want to give an honorable mention to Bernie Sanders, as I am also a big fan of him. He was also a running candidate (but lost to Biden) and I think I can safely say that everyone would want him as their grandpa. He is now a senator of the Budget Committee, so we will still happily see a lot of him. And while everyone was wearing the most beautiful outfits, Bernie Sanders just showed up in a practical outfit. Namely a jacket from a snowboard brand and handmade woolen gloves. Fun detail: he got those gloves about three years ago from an elementary school teacher in Vermont and she was quite surprised when he suddenly started wearing them during his campaign. She now has a big booming business with Bernie’s Mittens. Love it.

There were also the funniest tweets about him, so let's end with that. I've listed the funniest ones, but the mere fact that Bernie’s Mittens was trending on Twitter is pure enjoyment.