Artists Help Raise $127 Million Through One World Concert

The One World: Together At Home concert, organized by Global Citizen and the World Health Organization (WHO), successfully raised $127 million for vaccine development and assisting small charities with their relief efforts during the pandemic through the WHO’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

The concert was split into two parts, with an opening six-hour event that streamed across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube; which was then succeeded by a main two-hour broadcast which NBC, ABC and CBS
VIAC
aired simultaneously.

Performing from their living rooms during the Coronavirus lockdown, the musicians and organizers showed the overall creativity of the planning process at moments with John Legend and Sam Smith performing a duet from their homes, the Rolling Stones performing together, albeit physically separately, and pre-recorded performances from artists such as Rita Ora. 

In the U.K. BBC One exhibited snippets from the concert hosted by Dermot O’Leary, Claudia Winkleman and Clara Amfo and had well-known British musicians join in addition, such as Sir Tom Jones and Little Mix. 

Former U.S. First Ladies Michelle Obama and Laura Bush, amongst others shared a message of unity during the broadcast together from their own homes speaking one after the other. “We’ve had the profound privilege of getting to know you and your families. Your hopes and your struggles, and your triumphs,” said Obama. 

“The spirit and courage of the American people is most evident in times of crisis, and during this period of physical separation, we’ve never been closer. Not just in our great country, but tonight we stand with the people of the world,” said Bush.

The joint-message concluded with Michelle Obama commenting, “The coming days will not be easy, but this global family of ours is strong. We will continue to be here for one another and we will get through this crisis. Together. Thank you.”

The event, though deemed a success by organizers, was lambasted by some critics with a New York Post article reporting on some societal criticism in raising money for the WHO, with U.S. President Donald Trump eluding to cutting a large amount of funding to the organization due to their pandemic response. 

Other performers across the event included Jennifer Lopez, Stevie Wonder, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Niall Horan and Celine Dion as well as many others.

Here is the whole broadcast:

During the same weekend, LiveXLive had a similar event, titled MusicLives sponsored by Tiktok and Facebook’s Oculus Venues which generated 2.5 billion video views for #MusicLives on TikTok during the show and recorded 23.9 million livestream views on LiveXLive’s site, app, social media accounts and the artists’ social media channels across 179 countries. The event alternatively raised money for the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund with performances from Trippie Redd, J Balvin and Swae Lee. 

In a statement Corey Sheridan, Head of Music Partnerships and Content Operations, North America, at TikTok said: “We are happy to have partnered with LiveXLive. Together we were able to bring joy and relief to the fans and also provided a massive platform to amplify such an amazing line-up of emerging talent.  MusicLives was a truly inspiring event that brought the global music community together in a time of separation.”