Lady Gaga has announced that she will be curating a star-studded, one-off benefit concert, One World: Together at Home, with Global Citizen on 18 April to raise funds for the World Health Organisation’s Covid-19 solidarity response fund, featuring performances from Paul McCartney, Lizzo, Elton John and Billie Eilish, to name just a few.
The move comes after Gaga was forced to delay the launch of her much-anticipated new album, Chromatica, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, and sees her pull together a diverse roster of names including classical superstars Andrea Bocelli and Lang Lang, country music legends Kacey Musgraves and Keith Urban, and global stars like Stevie Wonder.
The concert will be hosted by US talk show hosts Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert and will be broadcast live across the main US television networks, as well as being streamed online, at 8pm EST on 18 April. BBC One will then show an adapted version of the concert on 19 April, featuring exclusive performances from UK artists as well as interviews with frontline health workers from around the country.
Alongside the dizzying array of musical talent there will also be appearances from a number of celebrities, including David Beckham, Idris Elba (who tested posted for the virus himself but has since recovered), Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Kerry Washington.
The World Health Organisation has partnered with the social action platform Global Citizen in order to produce the event, after Global Citizen launched their ‘Together at Home’ series last month, which has already seen performances from several top artists in isolation, including Camila Cabello, Shawn Mendes and Rufus Wainwright.
In a press conference for WHO, Lady Gaga said she had already helped to raise $35 million (£28 million) for Global Citizen in the past week and clarified that the concert was not a fundraising telethon but would instead focus on entertainment and messages of solidarity. She did, however, urge philanthropists and businesses to donate to the fund ahead of the concert.
globalcitizen.org
