Lady Gaga Brings Stars Together to Applaud Healthcare Heroes in One World Performance

by Julian Spivey
Over the last month in this world and in our country, we’ve seen a renewed respect and appreciation for medical workers worldwide who are risking their lives to save our lives and keep us safe amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. Music superstar Lady Gaga helped curate a music special, not to raise money for anything, but merely to say thank you to those medical heroes that aired on major networks ABC, CBS, NBC and others, as well as streamed online on Saturday, April 18.
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I’ve seen a handful of these music specials in my lifetime for various causes and I have to say this was perhaps the most star-studded I’ve seen in quite some time, so I tip my cap to Lady Gaga for getting all these musical superstars and legends together. The special had everything from Rock royalty like Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones to some of pop music’s newest bright stars in Billie Eilish and Lizzo. There wasn’t a single dud in the bunch.

The special was hosted by late night talk show hosts Stephen Colbert (‘Late Show’), Jimmy Fallon (‘The Tonight Show’) and Jimmy Kimmel (‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’) and the trio did an admirable job of throwing to musicians performing from the safety and comfort of their homes, while also giving us a laugh or two along the way.

Lady Gaga rightfully kicked her shindig off with a performance of “Smile,” which she said was her way of hopefully giving us at home something to smile about during these hard times.

One of the most touching moments of the telecast came next when living legend Stevie Wonder paid tribute to friend Bill Withers, who died on March 30 from heart complications, by mixing Withers’ classic “Lean On Me” with “Love’s In Need of Love Today.”

Rock legend Paul McCartney paid tribute to the hard working women of the medical field by performing his Beatles No. 1 classic “Lady Madonna.” One of the true highlights of the evening came a little later when fellow British music royalty the Rolling Stones meshed together their hit “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” from their respective houses. The song sounded great, but if you noticed drummer Charlie Watts was air-drumming – does one of the all-time great drummers seriously not have a drum set at his home? In proof there is no shortage of all-time great British rockers Elton John performed an energetic “I’m Still Standing,” which will no doubt serve as a great theme for all of us who survive this time.

Being a global event, it was nice to see some worldly music on the program with performances from Latin star Maluma performing “Carnaval” and African star Burna Boy meshing together “African Giant” and “Hallelujah.”

Among the younger pop set featured on the telecast were perhaps 2019’s biggest pop star finds in Lizzo and Billie Eilish. Both performed classic covers with Lizzo dropping jaws with Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come,” which I felt was the best performance of the two-hour special. Eilish performed Bobby Hebb’s 1966 hit “Sunny,” with her brother/producer Finneas accompanying on organ. It was terrific, but also the hardest to hear performance of the evening due to a lack of a microphone involved.

Speaking of organ performances, I thought Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder was about to launch into something from “The Phantom of the Opera” during his performance of “River Cross,” with the way his organ sounded.

Some of the evening’s truly touching performances were of songs that almost find a second meaning in these hard times like Kacey Musgraves’ “Rainbow,” Taylor Swift’s “Soon You’ll Get Better” and Green Day’s frontman Billie Joe Armstrong doing “Wake Me Up When September Ends.” Good luck having gotten through any of those stellar performances with dry eyes.

And, if you ever thought to yourself, “I wonder what Jennifer Lopez would sound like performing a Barbra Streisand number?” I don’t think you would’ve been disappointed by her version of “People.”

The evening ended with a special, previously unannounced, all-star collaboration of “The Prayer” by Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli, Lady Gaga, John Legend and Lang Lang accompanying them on piano.

The entire special was interspersed with clips and interviews with medical professionals doing their best to make this world a safer and better place and I hope many throughout the country got the chance to enjoy the program tonight in the comfort of their homes.

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