'Hands' song featuring Selena Gomez newest musical effort to help Orlando
Artists including Meghan Trainor, RuPaul, and the band Imagine Dragons appear on the new song, the revenue from which will benefit聽the GLBT Community Center of Central Florida, the Equality Florida Pulse Victims Fund, and GLAAD.
Artists including Meghan Trainor, RuPaul, and the band Imagine Dragons appear on the new song, the revenue from which will benefit聽the GLBT Community Center of Central Florida, the Equality Florida Pulse Victims Fund, and GLAAD.
Music acts including Britney Spears, Selena Gomez, and the group Imagine Dragons have collaborated on a song, 鈥淗ands,鈥� which will be released on July 6 and the revenue for which will help the GLBT Community Center of Central Florida, the Equality Florida Pulse Victims Fund, and GLAAD. It鈥檚 the newest effort by the artistic community to help Orlando in the wake of the June shooting and the latest song by artists to benefit a charitable cause.聽
The song, which is released by Interscope Records and GLAAD, also features artists such as Meghan Trainor, RuPaul, Gwen Stefani, Juanes, Pink, Jennifer Lopez, and Mary J. Blige as well as many other musicians.聽
Songwriter Justin Tranter, who co-wrote the song with Julia Michaels and BloodPop, remembered the response when he contacted The Center Orlando, a community center with an LGBT focus, following the Orlando shooting.
鈥淚 called them and said, 'If I fly up, is there something for me to help with?'" he said in an interview with Billboard. "They say, 'We need as many hands as we can possibly get.'鈥�
The release of 鈥淗ands鈥� follows the recent recording of the song 鈥淲hat The World Needs Now Is Love,鈥� which was composed and written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, by various Broadway stars, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Audra McDonald, and Sara Bareilles. Proceeds for the song are going to the LGBT Center of Central Florida and the track hit number one on the iTunes song download chart in late June.聽
Some of the most famous songs that focused on a cause have included 鈥淒o They Know It鈥檚 Christmas?,鈥� which was performed by Band Aid in 1984 to help with hunger in Africa and has been redone multiple times, and 鈥淲e Are the World,鈥� which was first recorded in 1985 and the revenue for which helped those suffering from hunger in Africa. 鈥淲orld鈥� has also been performed again since its initial release.聽
It seems that earlier efforts helped to inspire others. Seth Rudetsky, who helped organize the recent recording of 鈥淲hat The World Needs Now Is Love,鈥� told the Hollywood Reporter that his husband James Wesley, a producer, had the idea to record 鈥淲e Are The World鈥� following the Orlando shooting.
鈥淭he Broadway community was so terribly shaken and devastated by the horrific tragedy in Orlando,鈥� Mr. Rudetsky said. 鈥淓veryone wanted to do something as quickly as possible that would truly make a difference. On Monday, my husband James woke me up at 7:30 a.m. and suggested we rally our friends and colleagues to do a 鈥榃e Are the World鈥�-type recording and raise money for the victims and their families. We started making calls and suddenly we had tons of theater actors along with an orchestra and the services of a fully staffed recording studio, all willing to donate their time and talent. Our community of artists has banded together as we always do to show we can end this cycle of violence and intolerance. Love will prevail.鈥�