ABC/Randy Holmes; ABC/Ida Mae AstuteSting and Gloria Estefan were among the many music artists who took part in a six-hour telethon Sunday seeking to raise money for doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in Jamaica.
The event, titled Telethon Jamaica, Together We Stand, which was broadcast around the world, underscored the hardships ahead not only for smaller countries like Jamaica but bigger ones like the U.S., which is still battling the coronavirus.
“Please donate to support your healthcare workers, who are fighting this amazingly courageous fight against COVID-19,” Sting said in a pre-recorded video message on the program. “Stay at home, and donate.”
Estefan, meanwhile, said in her own video message, “Hello to all the beautiful people of Jamaica…I wanted to send you all a lot of love, a lot of solidarity. We’re all going through this together and we are thinking of you in this time and sending prayers and good thoughts of good health, strength and resilience.”
Gloria also sent a video of her performing a solo acoustic Spanish-language version her 1996 song “Reach,” “Puedes Llegar.”
Among the many other artists who took part in or contributed video messages to the telethon were Wyclef Jean, Shaggy, Jimmy Cliff and the late Bob Marley‘s sons Ziggy, Damian and Stephen.
Sunday night’s unified message for Jamaicans echoed one that authorities began pushing weeks ago inside the U.S., as stateside hospitals, police departments and other first responders scrambled to secure enough masks and other gear to protect themselves.
“The people of the United States…see how disastrous this is as a disease, and the impact it can have on even the most well-resourced health service,” Jamaica’s prime minister, Andrew Holness, said during the telethon.
The show is viewable at VP Records’ YouTube channel.
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