Last night, A&E televised the Shining a Light benefit, subtitled A Concert for Progress on Race in America. The All-Star list of artists who performed at the event included Pharrell Williams (playing his 2015 single “Freedom”), Sia (covering Jimmy Cliff’s classic “Many Rivers to Cross”), Jill Scott (owning the protest standard “Strange Fruit”), and Nicki Minaj (who read the Maya Angelou poem “Still I Rise”). Country star Eric Church also led an impressive cast, which included soul stars past and present in Smokey Robinson and Aloe Blacc, on his Mr. Misunderstood track “Kill a Word.” Watch clips of some of the highlight performances here.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=XMpU-3oRM9s
https://youtube.com/watch?v=3HPq_CPLPDc
https://youtube.com/watch?v=cTZUKP36CLg
https://youtube.com/watch?v=MafMxdiXe6I
https://youtube.com/watch?v=OkXAxpzE6Gk