MUSIC GRANDE TO HOST STAR STUDDED BENEFIT SHOW
Coldplay, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber to play for Grande’s Manchester Benefit Concert
Singer Ariana Grande (left) will hold a starstudded benefit concert in Manchester on Sunday to pay homage to the victims of the May 22 suicide bombing in the city. A footfall of around 50,000 is expected at the event. Grande’s One Love concert, which was announced on Tuesday, will take place at the Emirates Old Trafford near Manchester, reports variety.com. She will be joined by top-billed artists like Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Pharrell Williams, and Usher. Coldplay is also set to perform for the night, along with fellow British acts Take That and Niall Horan.
The event will raise money for the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund set up to support the victims of the tragedy. All of the artists set to perform on Sunday will be donating their time for free, and even looking after their own travel and accomodation.
Melvin Benn of Festival Republic, part of the core group of organisers, credits Grande for her bravery. “It just came out of the blue for me. I didn’t anticipate Ariana wanting to step forward and play a concert so soon after the tragedy that happened. For such a young woman to have the bravery to stand up and do that, I think every actor should take notice,” Benn said.
Security is foremost on the organisers’ minds. Benn said, “Almost the first conversation I had in Manchester was with Chief Constable Ian Hopkins of Greater Manchester Police, to get an assessment of whether this is a completely bonkers idea, in view of the circumstances.” English actor Tom Hardy, and rapper Eminem have also raised funds for the victims.
Actor Keri Russell (above), who has starred in the TV college-drama Felicity, and currently plays a Russian spy in The Americans, has been felicitated with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a ritual for industry veterans.
Russell, 41, first appeared on television in the 1990s on the All New Mickey Mouse Club, with stars like Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.
Her big break came in 1998 as the star of Felicity, playing the titular role of a wide-eyed college student who is caught up in a romantic triangle. “What she does beautifully is to become other people and she does it in a way that most actors would only dream of being able to do,” film director and Felicity co-creator J.J. Abrams said at a ceremony in Los Angeles.
Matthew Rhys, Russell’s real-life partner and co-star in The Americans, was also seen with her. The two play KGB officers posing as U.S. citizens in the 1980s. Russell, whose film credits include Waitress and Mission: Impossible III, said she was fortunate to have a career that allowed her to “see these things I’ve never seen and meet incredible people and live this wild adventure.”