The most comforting thing about Sunday night’s “Living Room Concert for America” — an all-star musical fundraiser hosted by Elton John and broadcast on Fox — wasn’t Alicia Keys using her song “Underdog” to salute the first responders putting their lives at risk to protect people from COVID-19. Nor was it the brief message of sympathy Lady Gaga offered folks who’ve already lost loved ones or their jobs — a message that, it’s worth pointing out, squeezed more compassion into 40 seconds than President Donald Trump has mustered in weeks.
Instead, the true reassurance to be had from this socially distanced telethon came from the fact that Mariah Carey appeared to have set up a small electric fan to blow her hair as she sang “Always Be My Baby” in her home studio. It came from Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes’ eagerness to flirt amid a global pandemic. And it came from the obvious boredom with which Billie Eilish sang her smash “Bad Guy” for what had to have been the zillionth time.
Typical pop-star stuff, in other words — and a welcome reminder of life before (and hopefully after) the pain and disruption caused by the novel coronavirus.
Presented by media conglomerate iHeartRadio on the evening reserved for its annual awards show, Sunday’s one-hour production was basically a more polished rendition of the virtual concerts that countless artists have been playing on social media since the live-music business shut down. In addition to the aforementioned acts, the special featured performances — each shot in a living room or bedroom or some such — by the Backstreet Boys, Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Tim McGraw, Sam Smith, Demi Lovato and H.E.R.