Just when you thought we were ready to fall in love with big live gigs again, Hurricane Henri had other plans for New York City.
The disastrous HH erased what was supposed to be a triumphant night for New York – more than a year after the COVID-19 pandemic shook the big apple – at We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert on the Great Lawn of Central Park on Saturday night.
Halfway through the concert, com Barry Manilow retired “I can’t smile without you”: The sky opened up and pre-Henri arrived several hours earlier than expected, with the threat of rain and lightning ending what was becoming an epic event.
It was as if Mother Nature said it was “too early” to celebrate the overcoming of COVID with cases increasing due to the Delta variant. Mom used to tell us a lot, “We’re not home yet.”
To be fair, when Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last month Mayor Bill de Blasio, when Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the star-studded concert, produced by music industry legend Clive Davis and the giant concert-nation Live Nation, things seemed to be going in a much more positive direction for New York, but with the COVID cases, even with some advanced positive evidence among the vaccinated, there was some concern that we weren’t ready yet. to be partying in the park, even if a vaccination test was required for entry.
But when the sun came out just before the concert started at 5pm, with a Gayle King dressed in yellow symbolizing it, it looked like the brightest days were to come. The host of “CBS This Morning” presented the New York Philharmonic, which added a level of seriousness and grandeur to the proceedings: we met to have a serious moment of recognition of everything we had survived before all the fun began .
Then, when Andrea Bocelli, the Italian tenor who fought COVID earlier last year, sang “You’ll Never Walk Alone” with the support of the Philharmonic, a resounding note sounded throughout Central Park. It was as if I didn’t even need a microphone as he begged us to “Walk, keep hope in your heart”.
And, as if to show us all the challenges we have overcome, the blind singer even played the flute before telling us, “After a storm the sun always comes.”
After that emotional moment, came Jennifer Hudson, who, having just published her biography of Aretha Franklin, “Respect,” last week, proved that Bocelli wouldn’t let her pass. In homage to the Queen of Soul, she performed “No Sleep,” the aria Franklin famously sang at the Grammys in 1998 as a last-minute replacement for Luciano Pavarotti.
It was a real performance for all eras, with a higher final grade that would surely make it difficult to overcome.
Still, the concert was just beginning. And there were a lot of other highlights, from a “Smooth” by Ageless Carlos Santana with Rob Thomas, and a Great Lawn full of concertgoers running on the grass, to Journey giving it to us. remember, even in the face of a global pandemic. , in “Don’t Stop Believing.”
And then came what, at any regular Central Park concert, could have been the finale: LL Cool J and a plethora of New York hip-hop legends, including Busta Rhymes, Fat Joe, and Rev. Run of Run-DMC – rocked the stage in a performance ranging from Busta’s “Put Your Hands Where They Could See My Eyes” and Fat Joe’s “Lean Back” to LL’s own classic “Mama Said Knock You Out “.
In a water velvet swimsuit, LL, 53, was still the epitome of cool to damp in late August.
Then, de Blasio came out to be heard before introducing the legendary R&B band Earth, Wind & Fire. And the elements really took over after their performance, with Hurricane Henri stopping the night before the Killers, Bruce Springsteen and Paul Simon were even able to take the stage.
While CNN scoffed that the concert could start again, perhaps without an audience and some detainees who refused to leave, Anderson Cooper finally said it: The Homecoming had officially disappeared. And, in what is probably the worst case scenario, the drunken, drunken concertgoers flooded the subway, many without masks, wondering when they might feel at home again.
