2017's Biggest Benefit Concerts, From One Love Manchester to One Voice: Somos Live
2017's Biggest Benefit Concerts, From One Love Manchester to Somos Live
This year, tragedies at concerts and festivals were met with unifying and rallying benefit shows fronted by the biggest names in music, starting with Ariana Grande’s One Love Manchester, organized soon after the deadly bombing at her tour stop in the U.K. city. At the benefit show, her manager, Scooter Braun, delivered a midconcert address, saying, “Hatred will never win -- fear will never divide us.” The sentiment has since been echoed as the industry staged A-list concerts to ensure that live shows will always remain a safe space -- and that music remains a healing force.
Pictured: Grande closed her star-studded One Love Manchester benefit show on a hopeful note with a moving cover of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
Texas Strong: Hurricane Harvey Can’t Mess With Texas
Willie Nelson duetted with Bonnie Raitt and Leon Bridges at the Texas Strong: Hurricane Harvey Can’t Mess With Texas benefit concert, before ending with an all-star rendition of “On the Road Again.”
Vegas Strong
Magician Penn Jillette, Wayne Newton, The Killers’ Brandon Flowers and Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds (pictured) sang “Viva Las Vegas” at the Vegas Strong benefit show to support victims of the October shooting at the Route 91 Harvest festival.
Band Together
Bay Area locals Kirk Hammett and Lars Ulrich of Metallica were part of a diverse roster for the Band Together benefit for fire relief.
TIDAL X: Brooklyn
JAY-Z introduced icon Stevie Wonder to close out the TIDAL X: Brooklyn show, TIDAL’s third annual concert that this year benefited hurricane relief.
One Voice: Somos Live! A Concert for Disaster Relief
“This disaster hits very close to home,” said Jennifer Lopez, who co-organized, co-hosted and performed at One Voice: Somos Live! A Concert for Disaster Relief.