20 March 2020
The spreading coronavirus has canceled several touring performances from top musical artists. But some of these musicians have found a new place to sing: their living rooms.
John Legend, Bono, Pink and Keith Urban are among those who have all livestreamed performances from their homes.
"I mean, we don't normally do concerts live from our house," Legend told The Associated Press. On Tuesday, he sang for nearly an hour in a show that was livestreamed on Facebook and Instagram.
"This is a cool way to connect with people and make them feel some kind of love..." he said.
The piano-playing musician took requests on social media as he sang from his living room just as he does at one of his concerts. Legend's performance was in support of the World Health Organization's (WHO) newly-launched online concert series "Together at Home."
Others have found creative ways to communicate with people.
Miley Cyrus started a daily Instagram live talk show, called "Bright Minded: Live with Miley", to lift people's spirits. Singer-actress Demi Lovato appeared on the show Tuesday.
Brandon Flowers of The Killers tweeted a video of himself washing his hands while singing his song "Mr. Brightside."
Kevin O'Donnell is head of musical partnerships at Twitter. He said "It's really incredible to see artists coming together to figure out ways that they can bring...happiness to their fans given this crazy time that we're living in at the moment."
Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard and JoJo have also joined the music community by livestreaming directly on social media. So have Christine and the Queens, Yungblud, David Foster and Katharine McPhee.
John Legend is working on new music and may still release his songs in a few weeks while people are still inside their homes.
"I think we can get a lot of that out to people sooner rather than later," he said.
"We have to decide as a music community if we're going to let the fact that we can't go out and...promote it stop us from putting it out. And I...think we should put stuff out," he added.
I'm Jonathan Evans.
The Associated Press reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
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Words in This Story
tour - n. to go from one place to another
livestream - n. a live presence on the internet
concert - n. a musical performance for many people
fan - n. someone who follows a musician or actor or writer
incredible - adj. unbelievable
figure - n. thinking or considering
promote - v. to seek publicity