Beyonce Knowles, James Taylor and Kelly Clarkson to perform at the presidential inauguration

The second presidential inauguration of Barack Obama is going to be a star-studded affair. Popular music superstars Beyonce Knowles, Kelly Clarkson and James Taylor will be performing at the ceremony. Additionally, Richard Blanco, the son of Cuban exiles, was selected by Obama to be the 2013 inaugural poet.

“His contributions to the fields of poetry and the arts have already paved a path forward for future generations of writers,” Obama said in a statement. “Richard’s writing will be wonderfully fitting for an inaugural that will celebrate the strength of the American people and our nation’s great diversity.”

Blanco will be the youngest of a small group of poets who have read at a presidential inauguration. Planners have described his poetry as an exploration of his family’s history of exile and “the intersection of his cultural identities as a Cuban-American gay man.” Blanco himself said he was “brimming over with excitement, awe, and gratitude” at being selected.

The swearing-in ceremony will be followed by a luncheon in the Statuary Hall for 200 people, including congressional leaders, Cabinet members and Supreme Court justices. Planners said the lunch menu will feature steamed lobster, New England chowder, hickory grilled bison with wild huckleberry reduction and red potato horseradish cake and a dessert of apple pie, ice cream, cheese and honey.