Coronavirus: John Legend, Keith Urban, Pink and Rob Thomas live-stream mini-concerts for fans amid quarantines
Ever since the world ground to a halt last week as the reality of the deadly coronavirus set in, many musicians have turned to live-streaming their music online in an effort to entertain and engage with their fans who are sequestered at home. John Legend recently decided to hold an impromptu concert from his home, accompanied by his wife, Chrissy Teigen. John took on the musical baton from Chris Martin, who had previously live-streamed a half-an-hour of wholesome goodness via Coldplay's Instagram channel on March 16, regaling followers with fan-requests, a David Bowie cover, plus a Q&A session.
The mini-gigs were launched as part of an initiative by Global Citizen and the World Health Organization (WHO), which aims at uniting the world during the COVID-19 pandemic with a virtual music concert series called the Solidarity Sessions: Together At Home.
When Chris Martin announced that John was next in line for the Together At Home series, he wryly quipped, "You can see a real piano player who doesn’t need fireworks to play." John then followed up on that by tweeting, "My friend Chris Martin did a lovely little concert from home today. I'll be doing one tomorrow at 1pm Pacific time. See you soon. We'll try to get through this together! #TogetherAtHome."
Ever the mischievous troll, his wife, Chrissy, the popular model & TV personality, pulled her husband's leg by saying "I’ll be there!! Because I literally have no choice." Good one, Chrissy. John was good on his promise, performing a nearly hour-long concert at 1 pm PT / 4 pm ET on IGTV to an audience of over 114,000 people, while Chrissy sat on top of the piano that he was playing, looking resplendent in a towel headdress that she had fashioned. You can check out the full concert here.
John also had some great news in store, proclaiming that the other musicians set to live stream performances in the future are Miguel, Jhene Aiko, Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello, and Charlie Puth.
John is not the only one to be streaming music for fans in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Other musical celebrities like Pink live-streamed her piano practice, Keith Urban played a few tunes for fans accompanied by his wife Nicole Kidman, and Matchbox 20 frontman Rob Thomas played a cover of Crowded House's hit 'Don't Dream It's Over' while urging more musicians to stream music for fans who were quarantined at home. UK musician Yungblud also entertained fans for an hour with a live stream of 'The Yungblud Show'.
The Dropkick Murphys also recently live-streamed a full concert show on social media at 7 pm ET on Tuesday, March 17. We're taking what the band wrote on its website to heart: "The show must go on!"