The Motown sound will take center stage at the White House tonight.
More than 100 students will be at the special musical event, including several from the record label’s hometown of Detroit.
Detroit-native Augustine Cox loves music. The 17-year old says she's known she wants to go into the music business since she was in second grade; she wants to be a performer or a music producer.
When Cox, who goes to Birch Run High School, found out she was picked to go to Washington, D.C. for a Motown tribute concert at the White House, she was thrilled. She grew up listening to "the Jackson 5, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, the Marvelettes, Smokey Robinson." Cox says she listens to today's music, too, "but when I want to hear real music and real passion, I throw on a Motown CD."
Her current fave? The Best of Michael Jackson.
While she was in D.C., Cox also got to meet her biggest idol, Motown record label founder Berry Gordy, who gave her this advice:
"He just said that if you be you for long enough, there’s someone who will come along and love you and accept you and appreciate you, and that’ll be your shot. That was great."
President and Mrs. Obama will be at the concert in the East Room.
Motown legend Smokey Robinson is scheduled to perform along with Sheryl Crow, John Legend, Jamie Foxx and among others.
The taped performance will air March 1 on PBS.
