The singer-songwriter performed his new single ‘Actions’ on the latest edition of Jimmy Fallon’s At-home version of The Tonight Show.
With late-night programming paused due to the global coronavirus pandemic, the hosts offered comedic relief from their respective houses including Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon among others. The late night hosts have vowed to continue providing entertainment through YouTube channels.
In the latest edition of Jimmy Fallon’s at-home version of The Tonight Show, the host tapped John Legend to make a guest appearance via video chat where he performed his new single ‘Actions’.
The singer-songwriter also spoke about how hard it is to entertain his kids all day, how he and Chrissy Teigen are binge-watching Tiger King, and he spoke about how bad he’s been about keeping up with his workouts.
During the show, John Legend also opened up about how he came up with the idea to live-stream concerts during the COVID-19 pandemic that has forced people to shelter indoors.
John Legend was one of the first musicians to join the initiative that urges people to support the World Health Organization’s fund to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
Coldplay front-man Chris Martin kicked off the live-stream concerts, while other performers to participate in the initiative include Camila Cabello, Shawn Mendes, One Republic and Evanescence, among many others.
“All of us artists are home, including artists who were supposed to be on tour right now. My tour isn’t until the summer,” Legend told Jimmy Fallon. “There are a lot of fans that are stuck at home and wish they could be out doing what they normally do and wish they could be out going to concerts and doing all these other fun things,” he added.
The singer went on to explain that he thought the initiative was a good way to “bring everybody together”. Legend then credited Chris Martin, who he said “was coming up with it around the same time I was.”
He continued, “When I told my managers I wanted to do it, they were like, ‘Oh, Chris Martin’s is going do one for Global Citizen’, which is an organization we had raised money for and broadcast some of their events on NBC and MSNBC.”
According to Legend, they thought it would be cool to do it with Global Citizen, and work with the World Health Organization to bring awareness to the idea that people should stay at home and should distance from each other. “We shouted out some of the organizations we were raising money for and tried to entertain people and bring them together,” he reiterated.
Reflecting on how performing for a live stream was different than a live audience, Legend admitted that “it’s a little eerie”.
He furthered, “Instagram Live has the comments popping up every time someone makes one, has the little hearts going. You actually get more detailed feedback from Instagram Live than you would get from an audience.”
He noted that these live-streamed performances don’t include the cheers, but definitely allow fans to write what they like and request songs. “You would never get that from the audience unless you stopped and asked for detailed feedback from each individual,” he added.
Acknowledging that “there are many dark sides to this moment the singer”, Legend said that he hopes the live streams act as “some of the silver linings that we have”.
On a parting note, Legend said, “I feel like we’re experiencing it together even though we’re distancing from each other and we’re helping each other get through it.”
– With information from The Hollywood Reporter and Rolling Stone
