Watch Phoebe Bridgers, Dolly Parton, Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires Play Cyndi Lauper’s Virtual Home For The Holidays Benefit
Every year, Cyndi Lauper hosts an all-star benefit called Home For The Holidays. It raises money for True Colors United, the nonprofit that Lauper founded to combat LGBTQ youth homelessness. The show always looks like a blast. Last year, for example, Lauper and Henry Rollins sang Black Flag’s “Rise Above” together, and it ruled. This year, as with so many other annual celebrations, Lauper had to turn the Home For The Holidays show into a YouTube telethon with remote performances. She still made it a real all-star affair.
As part of last night’s benefit, for example, Phoebe Bridgers and her bandmate and collaborator Marshall Vore sang their devastating cover of McCartney Trenching’s “Christmas Song,” which Bridgers released two years ago. Dolly Parton, playing solo and acoustic, sang her own recent holiday number “Christmas Is.” Brandi Carlile did some pretty incredible singing on a version of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.” Together, the married duo of Amanda Shires and Jason Isbell sang “The Problem,” the duet that they released a few months ago. And Brittany Howard, playing live with her full backup band, wailed her way through her song “Georgia.”
The event also featured people like Jackson Browne, King Princess, Kim Petras, Adam Lambert, and Billy Porter. Cher sang her cover of Marc Cohn’s “Walking In Memphis.” Boy George covered Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” making it a song about boys instead. Lauper performed a bunch of times herself. You can watch the entire benefit below. Phoebe Bridgers is at the 24:56 mark, Dolly Parton is at 45:41, Brandi Carlile is at 48:07, Amanda Shires and Jason Isbell are at 1:11:22, and Brittany Howard is at 1:15:45.