The Hand-in-Hand telethon for hurricane relief kicked off on Tuesday night (Sept. 12) with a performance from soul legend Stevie Wonder. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer began the multi-network telecast with an impassioned, gospel choir-assisted cover of Bill Withers’ “Lean on Me.”
Before launching into his performance, Wonder addressed viewers and attendees to deliver a powerful message about equality and environmental responsibility. “We’ve come together today to love on the people that have been devastated by the hurricanes,” the artist preached. “When love goes into action, it preferences no color of skin, no ethnicity, no religious beliefs, no sexual preferences, and no political persuasions. It just loves.”
His closing remarks were more pointed: “As we begin to love and value our planet… anyone who believes that there is no such thing as global warming must be blind or unintelligent. Lord, please save us all.”
Watch clips of the performance here, and go to handinhand2017.com to donate to the telethon’s relief efforts.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Stevie Wonder has kicked off the hurricane relief telethon in the US. <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/TMS7?src=hash”>#TMS7</a> <a href=”https://t.co/yjCvAZQwJF”>pic.twitter.com/yjCvAZQwJF</a></p>— The Morning Show (@morningshowon7) <a href=”https://twitter.com/morningshowon7/status/907758534489653249″>September 13, 2017</a></blockquote>
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