Post Malone's Nirvana tribute raises over $2.6 million for COVID-19 aid, fans adore the cover songs and dress
Rapper Post Malone paid homage to his hard rock roots by playing a set of iconic Nirvana songs for his delighted fans on Friday, April 24.
Having previously covered Nirvana tunes in his concerts as a successful hip-hop star, Malone decided to go the whole hog this weekend by organizing a Nirvana Tribute charity concert that was live-streamed from his Salt Lake City home this weekend.
The former metal band member-turned-solo artiste played a 15-song setlist on his official YouTube channel starting at 6 pm ET, and besides the entertainment factor, it helped serve as a fundraiser for coronavirus relief efforts.
The description for the Nirvana concert read: "This event will raise funds for The United Nations Foundation’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for The World Health Organization (WHO) in support of COVID-19 relief efforts. Fans will be able to make donations to the UN Foundation in real-time during the live stream event. Google. will be matching all donations at a 2:1 rate, up to $5M, with all proceeds going to the UN Foundation."
Austin Richard Post aka Post Malone was joined in his efforts by Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker, bassist Brian Lee and guitarist Nick Mac and ended up raising over 2.6 million dollars in donations.
Post Malone had previously stated his original goal was to raise 5 million dollars for charity, but this is certainly a hefty chunk of change.
In a fitting tribute to the great Kurt Cobain, who was notorious for cross-dressing on stage, Malone wore a flowery dress that was perfectly in tune with the late Cobain's (and Malone's) sense of fashion.
Here's the full setlist of Nirvana songs that he ran through during the course of the show:
'Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle'
'Drain You'
'Come As You Are'
'Lounge Act'
'School'
'Heart-Shaped Box'
'Something In The Way'
'About A Girl'
'Stay Away'
'Lithium'
'Breed'
'On A Plain'
'Very Ape'
'Territorial Pissings'
'In Bloom'
Both Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and Kurt Cobain's widow, Courtney Love tuned in to watch the immensely entertaining live stream. "So proud of @PostMalone and crew," Novoselic tweeted, while Love had previously given her blessings for the show via social media.
Fans were also loving every second of the show: "That was so impressively good! As someone who doesn't listen to @PostMalone much, he just blew my mind. Thank you for this!" said one fan. "It was incredible, his voice perfect," said another enthusiastic viewer.
Other fans pointed out how close the musicians came to recreating Nirvana's signature grunge sound: "Actually that was eerie. A lot of people cover Nirvana, few people actually channel it. I love the dresses, that was really right on." stated another impressed follower.
Another viewer was so blown away by Malone's rocking talent that he said, "Post Malone needs to change genres, so good."
Another blown-away fan posted: "Only this beautiful man can stand in his living room, drinking Budlight, have 200k viewers watching him play his heart out to Nirvana in a flowered dress while raising money to help defeat a global deadly virus & be absolutely perfect! Thank you, Post Malone."