Marc Cohn Discusses His Surprise Performance At JLo And Ben Affleck’s Wedding
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Last month, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck finally had the big wedding party that they’d first intended to throw decades ago. Lopez and Affleck had already married in Las Vegas, but they went on to throw a big wedding ceremony at Affleck’s compound in Savannah, Georgia. Jennifer Lopez performed at the ceremony. More surprisingly, the evening’s other performer was the veteran singer-songwriter Marc Cohn, who played two of his songs, 1993’s “The Things We’ve Handed Down” and 1991’s “True Companion,” while Lopez walked down the aisle.
People reports that Jennifer Lopez invited Marc Cohn to perform as a surprise for Ben Affleck. Lopez wrote about it in her newsletter:
Ben and I talked about Marc Cohn’s “True Companion” as the perfect wedding love song in this very house more than twenty years ago. Though Ben didn’t know, I asked Marc to surprise him by singing it at our wedding and he was lovely and generous to come.
As I walked down the aisle, the first song he played wasn’t “True Companion” however. It was his “The Things We’ve Handed Down” — a song about the wonderful mystery of children — something we could only guess at back then, but it was the perfect choice as our five children preceded me on the walk.
Today, Marc Cohn posted a couple of photos from the wedding ceremony on Instagram, and he wrote a bit about the experience:
A few weeks ago I got a lovely and unexpected call from @jlo. She asked if I would please come and surprise Ben by performing “The Things We’ve Handed Down” and “True Companion” during their upcoming wedding ceremony. Apparently those songs held a special meaning for them both and she knew my presence would be extremely moving for her groom. Of course I was honored to be asked and everything went according to plan.
This pic is of me walking up to Ben at the altar as Jennifer asked me to do. I looked at Ben, who seemed shocked to see me, and said, “Your bride brought me here to sing a couple of songs for you. I hear you have great taste in music.”
It was truly a magical celebration and I was thrilled to be there. For a songwriter, there is nothing better than seeing how your work impacts others. It really doesn’t get much better than that.