• Country star Eric Church doesn't know when concerts might resume in the United States after the spread of the coronavirus, but he wants people to feel safe when they return to hear live music. The singer, known for his often-worn sunglasses, sent a message to fans last weekend in a new video and tease of a new song that offers his belief in the American resolve to overcome the pandemic. With echoes of the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas in his mind, Church recorded the song "Through My Ray Bans," co-written with Luke Laird and Barry Dean, in February about seeing people standing shoulder to shoulder, "like an army of Friday night soldiers." "It could be sports. It could be music. It could be church. It's that fellowship that we have that makes life worth living," Church said in an interview. The virus reminded him of the fear that many people, even himself, felt after the Route 91 Harvest music festival, where Church had played the night before the shooting. "As messed up as the world is, I never in a million years thought that could be a danger area," Church said. Now as tours and festivals are canceled or rescheduled or postponed indefinitely, Church wants to remind fans that concerts and gatherings will resume eventually. "When people come back, they have to feel that it's OK to be there, that they can experience it the way they want to experience it," Church said. "They should be able to go up and throw their arms around the person next to them. They should not be scared about being three feet away and not six."
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• Andrew Lloyd Webber is holding a virtual competition that could lead to one fan singing on Broadway or the West End when musicals resume playing. The composer has invited singers to make up their own little vocal showcase at the end of the song "Think of Me" sung by the character Christine Daaé from The Phantom of the Opera. There's a little 13-second pocket -- called a cadenza -- where freestyle vocal gymnastics are encouraged. The winning contestant will be introduced onstage by Lloyd Webber at either the home of The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway or London -- whichever opens first -- and sing after the performance. "I just thought, 'Wouldn't it be fun to find a cadenza that we could do when finally we reopen in 2047,'" he joked during an interview. Lloyd Webber has tapped talk show host Graham Norton and singer Sierra Boggess, who played Christine in a number of productions of The Phantom of the Opera to help him judge the entries, which have come in over Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. "Some of them are very funny. Some of them are very good. And one or two of the girls who sent in things, I think we ought to actually see because I think they could just possibly be Christines," he said. "It's delightful."
A Section on 04/25/2020