Celebrities Help Entertain Us During the Coronavirus Lockdown
By Chloe Cornell
The Coronavirus is devastating the entire world and everyone is affected by this pandemic. Life in social isolation can feel lonely, depressing, monotonous, and disconcerting, but many celebrities are doing what they can to help entertain us while we are on lockdown which is much appreciated! Some of the efforts have also incorporated fundraising efforts for charities catering to coronavirus relief. If there is any silver lining from Coronavirus, it is the beauty of seeing people go above and beyond to help and support others in times of need.
#iHeartRadio Living Room Concert on FOX
Elton John came up with the idea of creating a concert to not only raise everyone’s spirits, but to also help first responders and the charity Feed America. He reached out to a number of musicians which resulted in an extraordinary lineup and over $8 million raised. Some of the participants included Mariah Carey, Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish, Alicia Keys, Demin Lovato, H.E.R, Camilla Cabello and Shawn Mendez, Backstreet Boys, Ellen Degeneres, Sam Smith, Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day, Tim McGraw and Dave Grohl.
#Together At Home concerts:
Chris Martin was first to perform on Instagram Live creating the Together At Home: Who-Global Citizen Solidarity Sessions in conjunction with the World Health Organization and Global Citizen. The goal was to encourage and entertain people staying home for social isolation. John Legend and his wife Chrissie Teigen then took up the mantle and did their own concert from home. Charlie Puth, Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, Hozier, and Jennifer Hudson followed, offering an unparalleled opportunity to experience an intimate performance with these superstars.
Virtual Dance Parties
Celebrities like Ben Platt, John Legend, and Keith Urban hosted virtual dance parties, but the most popular dance party without a doubt is #ClubQuarantine with DJ D-Nice. These nightly virtual dance parties on Instagram have become the most epic, star-studded parties in the world with over 100,000 thousand people joining in. Just some of the celebrities that have attended include Michelle Obama, Drake, Rihanna, Halle Berry, Oprah, Mark Zuckerberg, Steph Curry, Mariah Carey, Spike Lee, Donnie Wahlberg, Brandy, Quincy Jones, Timbaland, Tyson Beckford DJ Pooh, Usher, Questlove, Jadakiss, Raekwon, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and more. If you want to attend you can click the link below.
Bright Minded with Miley Cyrus
Mylie Cyrus has been entertaining fans with this daily Instagram live series featuring guided meditations and chats with celebrity friends every Monday – Friday at 11:30 a.m. PT. One of the highlights was when Miley Cyrus and Emily Osment had a Hannah Montana reunion which you can watch and read more about here:
Naomi Campbell live-streaming her workouts
Supermodel Naomi Campbell is helping all of her followers stay in shape by live-streaming her intense workouts on her Instagram revealing to the world how she maintains her amazing body.
You can read more about her workouts in this issue’s Culture section.
Ellen DeGeneres calls her celeb friends
Ellen DeGeneres is entertaining her followers on her Instagram as she calls celebrity friends to see what they are up to because she is bored at home socially isolating. Her phone calls to friends like Jennifer Aniston, Michelle Obama, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel show us that celebrities are quarantining just like the rest of us!
Self-care with January Jones
Filled with spa activities like baths and LED masks, and other self-care activities like dance parties.
Guided Meditation with JB Smoove
If meditation is not quite your thing, you will at least be entertained by this “guided meditation” by JB Smoove from Curb Your Enthusiasm
Young Celebrities Took the Lead in Encouraging Their Followers To Social Distance
By Kiki Montgomery and Kate Kissell
Billie Eilish
Like so many young people, Billie Eilish did not worry much about the coronavirus at first. But now that the virus has become a global pandemic, Billie said she hopes everyone takes their social responsibility to stay inside.
On her Instagram Story, Billie begged her fans to social distance in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
“It is a really, really big deal right now, and it’s not a joke. I know because a lot of us haven’t seen it with our eyes, what it’s been doing and who it’s been affecting, it’s hard to understand that it’s real. But it really is real,” Billie said in her story. “I’ve seen a lot of young people out in the world, all over the place, going to the club or going to the beach or just going out and hanging out, and it’s really irresponsible. And I’m gonna explain why.”
While the singer didn’t worry much about the virus at first because she is young and healthy, she soon realized that social distancing is not just to protect her, but to protect those like the elderly who are more vulnerable.
“You know, it was like that stupid state of mind, where I’m like, ‘I don’t give a f*ck if I get it.’ Or, ‘I’m not gonna get it, I’m immune,'” she said. “And I did not realize that it’s not about me. So everybody that’s thinking, ‘I don’t care if I get it,’ it’s not about you.”
Caring about preventing the spread of the pandemic is different from panicking about it. In a time where most of the world is experiencing anxiety because of the coronavirus, Billie urged some advice to her fans.
“I wanted to talk about it because I know half the world is freaking out and half the world doesn’t give a f*ck. So I wanted to, just real quick, say: Don’t panic, but don’t be an idiot,” she said. “Please take responsibility for your endurance. Because yeah, you could get it and you could be fine, but you could give it to your parents. You could give it to your grandparents, or your aunts, or your uncles, or your friend’s mom. It’s not about you.”
Kylie Jenner
Another Young celebrity using their power to help spread the severity of the coronavirus is Kylie Jenner. She says, “Missing social time. The faster we stay inside the faster we can get back to it … I hope everyone is taking social distancing seriously!!”
Greta Thurnberg
The climate justice activist Greta Thurnberg has reported to many through her social media that she has been experiencing some of the many symptoms of the COVID-19 virus. Starting from the Coronavirus, this destructive disease has been killing so many and leaving the rest very sick or in the hospital. It has started a worldwide pandemic leaving everyone in constant fear. Thunberg posted this long message on an instagram post she released.
She began by saying, “the last two weeks I’ve stayed inside,” and “When I returned from my trip around Central Europe I isolated myself (in a borrowed apartment away from my mother and sister) since the number of cases of COVID-19 (in Germany for instance) were similar to Italy in the beginning.” From the beginning, Italy has been a global epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak and has even been the hardest hit country in Europe.
She continued by saying, “Around ten days ago I started feeling some symptoms, exactly the same time as my father, who traveled with me from Brussels,” Greta continued. “I was feeling tired, had shivers, a sore throat and coughed. My dad experienced the same symptoms, but much more intense and with a fever.”
The symptoms Greta includes in her caption directly correlate to ones stated and outlined in the World Health Organization (WHO). However, these guidelines state that these symptoms and usually the disease and virus as a while attack older people as they are more vulnerable. Yet it has been shown that people who are younger have been turned into vectors of transmission and are susceptible to infection and complications.
Greta began to shed light on her own countries’ take on the pandemic saying,“In Sweden you can not test yourself for COVID-19 unless you’re in need of emergent medical treatment. Everyone feeling ill [is] told to stay at home and isolate themselves,” She explained how her country has changed their motive for who should be tested. She continued saying, “I have therefore not been tested for COVID-19, but it’s extremely likely that I’ve had it, given the combined symptoms and circumstances.”
Greta tells of how she believes she has passed the worst part of her sickness and that this whole experience should be a big takeaway for any younger people who may think they are “immune” or “safe”.
“Now I’ve basically recovered, but, AND THIS IS THE BOTTOM LINE: I almost didn’t feel ill. My last cold was much worse than this! Had it not been for someone else having the virus simultaneously I might not even have suspected anything. Then I would just have thought I was feeling unusually tired with a bit of a cough,” she wrote. “And this [is] what makes it so much more dangerous. Many (especially young people) might not notice any symptoms at all, or very mild symptoms. Then they don’t know they have the virus and can pass it on to people in risk groups.”
“We who don’t belong to a risk group have an enormous responsibility, our actions can be the difference between life and death for many others,” she concluded. “Please keep that in mind, follow the advice from experts and your local authorities and #StayAtHome to slow the spread of the virus. And remember to always take care of each other and help those in need.”
Taylor Swift Vindicated from Full Leaked Phone Call with Kanye West?
By Chloe Robinson, Haley Brettschneider, and Julia Carroll
Taylor Swift and Kanye West’s 2016 beef has recently resurfaced, with the truth behind the demeaning lyrics in West’s hit, “Famous”, coming out. A few years ago, Kanye and his wife, Kim Kardashian, claimed that they alerted Swift before West’s song, “Famous”, dropped, which included the lyrics, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that bitch famous. Goddamn, I made that bitch famous.”
Kardashian told GQ that Swift approved the lyric, saying, “She totally knew that that was coming out. She wanted to all of a sudden act like she didn’t. I swear, my husband gets so much shit for things [when] he really was doing proper protocol and even called to get it approved.”
The original phone call between West and Swift was recently exposed to the public, revealing a lack of evidence that Swift approved the insulting lyric. Swift took to Twitter to say that she did not agree to neither Kanye’s lyric nor being secretly recorded. Kardashian and her large following proceeded to torment Swift online, calling her a snake, leading her to disable her Instagram comments.
The truth has finally come out: Swift never agreed to the lyric, and has been telling the truth the whole time. In the newly heard call, West inquires “OK, now what if later in the song I was also to have said, uh…’I made her famous’?”, to which Swift responds: “Did you say that? Oh god. Well, what am I gonna do about it? I mean, it’s kind of whatever at this point. But, I mean, you gotta tell a story the way it happened to you and the way that you experienced it — you didn’t know who I was at that point. It doesn’t matter if I pulled 7 million records off [ Fearless ] before you did that [at the VMAs] — which is what happened.”
Swift does, in fact, agree to the lyric, “I feel like Taylor Swift might owe me sex”, yet never to the full, well-known lyric that ridiculed Swift. West also included Swift’s naked body in his music video for “Famous”, something she didn’t consent to either. Twitter was blowing up after people realized how unfortunate it was that Swift was “cancelled” over her telling the truth.
Despite finally being proven innocent, Swift is more concerned with the pandemic that has stretched across the globe recently. On Monday, Swift took to her Instagram stories to address what she sees as the bigger issue, saying, “Instead of answering those who are asking how I feel about video footage that was leaked, proving that I was telling the truth the whole time about *that call* (you know, the one that was illegally recorded, that somebody edited and manipulated in order to frame me and put me, my family, and fans through hell for 4 years). Swipe up to see what really matters.”
When fans followed Swift’s instructions, they were brought to a donation page of Feeding America. Swift also asked her followers to donate to the World Health Organization if they could.
Kardashian proceeds to bash Swift, even after the phone call pointed to Swift’s innocence, dubbing her “untruthful”.
Online Music Festival Featuring Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish, Lizzo, and Kacey Musgraves for COVID-19 relief.
By Lucy Greene
Although COVID-19 has made it not possible for music lovers to attend concerts and live shows due to social distancing, Global Citizen and the World Health Organization just announced a pretty exciting event: a Lady Gaga curated online music festival. This event named “One World: Together at Home,” will celebrate healthcare workers around the world who put their lives at risk every day to save those that are infected. This event will support the U.N.s Foundation’s COVID-19 Response Fund while expressing the urgency and impact that this pandemic has. Their goal is to promote social- distancing and influence people to stay safe and follow the virus’s guidelines. There will be live virtual performances by huge artists such as Lady Gaga herself, Billie Eilish, Lizzo, Kacey Musgraves, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, and more. This performance will also be hosted by one of America’s favorite television hosts: Jimmy Kimmel. Gaga has confirmed that over $35 million has already been raised over the past week to support COVID-19 relief efforts. These funds are being put towards helping produce essential supplies such as masks, and testing kits as well as food for essential workers and children who rely on school lunches for meals.
The live show will begin at 8 p.m. EST on Saturday, April 18. You can watch it either on ABC, NBC, or iHeartMedia. So make some popcorn, get your friends on zoom, and experience the first-ever online music festival!
Click here to check out more details about the event: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/connect/togetherathome/
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April 2020billie eilishbillie eillishbright mindedchloe cornellchloe robinsoncoronavirusCovid-19ellen degenereselton johngreta thurnberghaley brettschneideriheart radiojimmy kimmeljulia carrollkacey musgraveskanye westkate kissellkiki montgomerykylie jennerlady gagalizzolucy greenenaomi campbellone world together at homepaul mccartneystevie wondertaylor swiftvirtual dance partyworld health organization
