More than 70 artists and celebrities have united around the world for a virtual concert, to honour healthcare workers who are fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lady Gaga, John Legend, Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli brought One World: Together at Home to a close with soaring four-part harmony – and accompaniment by piano virtuoso Lang Lang – with The Prayer, the song that became an inspirational standard after Dion and Bocelli recorded it separately and together 21 years ago.
It was the sole appearance on the two-hour prime-time telecast by Bocelli, who might actually count as the biggest pop star of the week, after his Easter Sunday live-stream from Milan was viewed by more than 30 million people on YouTube.
For Lady Gaga, who curated the special, it was a bookend to the number she began it with a little less than two hours earlier, a solo piano rendition of Charles Chaplin’s Smile.
Legend had also appeared earlier in the telecast, in a duet with Sam Smith.
The two-hour broadcast across multiple television channels around the world featured a Who’s Who of pop culture, with contributions filmed from their homes – from Paul McCartney, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, David Beckham and former US first ladies Michelle Obama and Laura Bush.
“I’m so grateful for the healthcare workers, the medical workers, all the grocery store workers and delivery people, the postal workers, all the other non-profits that are working so hard,” Gaga said.
“This is really a true love letter to all of you all over the world, and I hope a reminder of the kindness that’s occurring right now,” she added.
Hosted by three of the biggest late-night US television show hosts – Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon – the special paid tribute to teachers and healthcare, grocery, delivery, postal and other workers.
“We aren’t asking for money tonight,” Colbert said.
The event, organised by the World Health Organisation and the non-profit group Global Citizen, was the biggest celebrity effort so far to mark the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 150,000 people worldwide.
The Prayer, a song with much vocal and celebrity firepower, was obviously going to be reserved for the climax of the long day of music.
OMG!!! Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli and John Legend!!!
I didn’t know I needed this in my life but I’m so happy I do now!! #TogetherAtHome #OneWorld #OneWorldTogetherAtHome @ladygaga @celinedion @johnlegend ❤️❤️❤️❤️— ✨ 𝒦𝓇𝒾𝓈𝓉𝒾𝓃 ✨ (@KristinL_1185) April 19, 2020
It was immediately preceded by the evening’s biggest solo star, Taylor Swift, who sang an equally emotional but less upbeat ballad, the cancer-themed Soon You’ll Get Better.
Songs of uplift filled much of the two hours, whether it was Australian Keith Urban covering Steve Winwood’s Higher Love or Legend and Smith singing Ben E King’s Stand by Me.
No wonder Nicole Kidman seems so happy – she’s got three husbands @KeithUrban killed it!! 👏👏 🇦🇺 #OneWorldTogetherAtHome #oneworld #TogetherAtHome pic.twitter.com/n1M6oXvRXP
— J O D E S 💗 (@jodes888) April 19, 2020
Billie Eilish and Finneas revived a 1960s classic that gets fewer revivals now, Sunny.
But the Rolling Stones had split-screen fun with the more practical message of You Can’t Always Get What You Want.
Performing via a four-way split screen, the song started off with Mick Jagger singing and playing acoustic guitar; then joined by Keith Richards, also on acoustic; then Ronnie Wood on some stinging electric lead; and finally Charlie Watts, who drummed on a black box, but didn’t even pretend to be actually playing, hitting invisible cymbals somewhere in the region of an armchair to his right.
-AAP
The post ‘One World: Together at Home’: Stars unite for virtual coronavirus concert appeared first on The New Daily.
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