Neil Sedaka and GigAlive

Thanks to social media, we’ve seen and heard some of our beloved music artists perform their songs live accompanying themselves either with a guitar or piano. Of course, the “One World: Together at Home” was the biggest not just in terms of the number of performers and presenters, but also in raising $128 million for coronavirus health care workers through the World Health Organization. Guinness World Records acknowledged the global broadcast special for the most musical acts to perform at a remote music festival and the most money raised for charity by a remote music festival.

Other than Lady Gaga who curated “One World: Together at Home,” Neil Sedaka should be named as “Musician of the Year” for his virtual performances. One of the first singer-songwriters who had hit records with “Oh! Carol,” “Calendar Girl,” “Love Will Keep Us Together” and “Laughter in the Rain,” among the 800 compositions he had written, Sedaka has been singing three songs each day from his home without a microphone and wearing plain T-shirts. He is not raising any funds, but simply doing what he knows best – singing to give hope and joy, if not wonderful memories, to those who care to listen. He averages 300,000 views for each of his mini-concerts. And with Covid-19 still surging in the US, I don’t think he will stop as yet, with more than 300 songs performed to date. Oh! Neil, God bless you. Visit: NeilSedakaMusic.

Inspired by Sedaka and other artists, I’ve been doing my bit as a musician. Starting on the last Friday of March and every Friday since, I have this mini-concert, “GigAlive,” on Facebook Live. I sing three to four songs that I love as well as written, accompanying myself with a guitar. I inject a few inspiring words and read a poem occasionally. With a low of 400 viewers and a high of 1,300, I guess it’s worth the while.

For instance, in the July 3 episode, I adopted the theme, “For we know that if the earthly tent that we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.” (Corinthians 5:1) It is dedicated to those who have died during this time of the pandemic (there are more than 500,000 worldwide) and those who mourn the loss of their loved ones.

I sang a freshly written song entitled, “God be with You.” Allow me to share the lyrics: Refrain: You will be missed/You left too soon/Go, rest in peace/You won’t be alone/God be with you/Farewell, we love you// 1 Life is fleeting/A journey of ups and downs/Sometimes we’d laugh/Other times, we cried//2 This world will be lonely/As you have gone ahead/You’ll be remembered/You meant so much to us.