The intention of Lady Gaga’s “One World: Together at Home” is to raise money for worthy charities helping in the ongoing battle against the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that continues to hold the world in its grip, but she was quick to emphasize to all the late-night hosts that they will not be asking for money from the public.
Usually when there’s a catastrophe, and Gaga specified that this absolutely is one, there will come a televised event to help raise funds for disaster relief efforts. But Gaga said that in coordinating this special event with Global Citizen and the World Health Organization, it was important to her that they not ask the viewing audience for any donations.
“We didn’t want it to be a fundraiser, we wanted everyone to put their wallets away and sit back and enjoy the show,” she told Jimmy Kimmel as part of her blanket appearances across the three main late-night talk shows on Monday.
“Mostly because we’re very cognizant of the fact that unemployment is rising and also that people are having a very hard time feeding their children. We want everyone to enjoy this show.”
Instead, what Gaga and her team have been doing is making calls in advance of the special to corporate executives, philanthropists, celebrities and basically anyone with enough privilege to be riding out this pandemic with minimal impact on their lives. She was thrilled to reveal that nearly two weeks out from the event, they’d already raised $35 million.
“I just want to help in whatever way I can,” she told Kimmel. “The truth is I feel very blessed to have a home, I feel blessed that I have access to good food that is healthy and clean, and I wanted to figure out what I could do with my time to be of service.”
While she was chatting with Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show” about the special, Gaga talked about the generous donations of technology and support from IBM and then went so far as to FaceTime Apple CEO Tim Cook live during their call to see if she could confirm his sizable donation ($10M) to their efforts.
All of this is a statement and testament about solidarity, the ability and capacity for humankind to set aside their differences and come together in times of crisis for the betterment of all. Gaga even saw it as symbolic that ratings rivals Fallon, Kimmel and Stephen Colbert had set aside their differences to co-host the event.
Even better, all three of their respective networks had granted Gaga airtime on Saturday, April 18 from 8 to 10 p.m. ET for the event, which features a growing number of stars from the worlds of music, film, television and athletics. But it doesn’t stop there, as she also wants to emphasize the growing plague of kindness spreading around the world.
It’s part of her message now and always that kindness is so important. It’s important every day, of course, but it has so much power in times of uncertainty and trepidation like this one.
One of the things she wanted to emphasize is that there is something that you can do, even if you’re not in a position to donate financially to any causes due to unemployment or any other financial strains or concerns.
“One of the ways that you can is to be kind,” she said. “You being kind every day helps make it better for all the people that are scrambling at home or scrambling with their families because it’s not easy for them and they don’t have the time to sit around and think about what they could be doing to help. They’re trying to figure out where their next meal is going to go for their child.
“It really breaks my heart that there are so many kids in this country where their one meal from public school was all they were getting and now they don’t get that one meal,” she continued. “This is a catastrophe and in a time of catastrophe, kindness is the most important thing.
She went on to talk about people who may be finding themselves in difficult situations, quarantined with an abusive spouse, or struggling with physical or mental health issues alone, and how important compassion and understanding is. “We must be compassionate to each other,” she said. “And also self-awareness while you’re being kind, that you know what you have and what you don’t and you take those moments to have gratitude.”
Small things like showing kindness at a grocery store no matter how frustrated we might be that something is out of stock. It’s compassionate not to hard unnecessary food and supplies because supply chains have not been impacted at this time to a notable degree, so all shortages at this time are human caused as a result of panic shopping, hoarding and general lack of concern or regard for our neighbors and their needs.
While Gaga is still finalizing the list of guest performers, she was very excited to share that some of the cast of “Sesame Street” would be taking part, along with people like Alanis Morissette, Andrea Bocelli, Billie Eilish, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Burna Boy, Chris Martin, David Beckham, Eddie Vedder, Elton John, FINNEAS, Idris and Sabrina Elba, J Balvin, John Legend, Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban, Kerry Washington, Lang Lang, Lizzo, Maluma, Paul McCartney, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Shah Rukh Khan and Stevie Wonder.
But probably our favorite part of the whole evening, which saw Gaga make appearances on the same day across three networks and three late-night talk shows, was that our queen of the most fabulous wardrobe still managed to pull off multiple costume changes throughout the shows.
Not only did she appear in a different ensemble for each show, but she shed jackets halfway through interviews to mix up her look as well. It would seem that those performance instincts are still as sharp as ever, even after five weeks of self-isolation.
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