LISTEN: Cher just released a new track for COVID-19 relief

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Ay Chiquitita

A post shared by Cher (@cher) on May 5, 2020 at 6:32am PDT

Cher today released a new track to streaming services. Proceeds will help toward the fight against COVID-19, via UNICEF.

After her appearance in the movie, Mamma Mia 2, and following up Dancing Queen, her successful covers album of ABBA songs in 2018, the iconic singer has previously teased that she might do something else ABBA-related.

That has turned out to be a Spanish-language version of the Swedish band’s song ‘Chiquitita’. An English version appeared on Dancing Queen. ABBA also released both English and Spanish versions back in 1979.

The full Spanish version – Cher’s first Spanish-language rendition – hit all streaming services this morning at midnight.

Related: Cher offers to pay man’s legal expenses after he was fired for asking not to be called the N-word

“I knew I wanted to do something,” she told Billboard this week. “I actually started learning and rehearsing the song when I was in England last year but didn’t record it then. It was difficult!”

“When everything changed in the world I wanted to help,” Cher continued in a statement.

“This seemed like the right time to complete it. I’ve long admired UNICEF, especially their work educating young women. The actress Audrey Hepburn was a hero of mine and I was so proud when she became their first Goodwill Ambassador in 1988. Now, more than ever, it’s critical that we prioritize every child around the world as if they were our own.”

ABBA performed ‘Chiquitita’ at a UNICEF benefit concert in 1979 and donated half the proceeds from the song to the charity, until 2014, when all four members agreed to donate 100% of the proceeds.

In addition to the song, Cher recently announced the launch of the CherCares Pandemic Resource and Response Initiative (CCPRRI). The aim is to raise $1million to help the “chronically neglected and forgotten people” during the pandemic through the Entertainment Industry Foundation.

Related: Adam Lambert had everyone (including Cher) sobbing with his performance at the Kennedy Center Honors

A video for Cher’s new version of ‘Chiquitita’ will be aired Saturday during the UNICEF’s COVID-19 Virtual Special – streaming at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on unicefwontstop.org and youtube.com/uincefusa.

Cher told Billboard, “I shot my part of the video at home and they later sent me the final cut with children from around the world in it. It’s such a beautiful, optimistic experience. It’s great when you can see anything positive now because all of the turmoil we are in.”

www.queerty.com/listen-cher-just-released-new-track-covid-19-relief-20200508?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+queerty2+%28Queerty%29

A Beloved Queer Activist Posted This Now-Viral Tweet Moments Before He Was Gunned Down in SF’s Mission District

Courtney Brousseau, a beloved 22-year-old Twitter employee and co-founder of the advocacy group Gay for Transit, was gunned down near San Francisco’s Dolores Park last week.

Brousseau, who identified as bisexual in his Twitter bio, posted photos from the park at 8:17 p.m. on Friday, minutes before he was reportedly caught in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting.

“I just ate a delicious burrito in Dolores park and for a brief moment everything felt okay,” Brousseau wrote after picking up take-out amid the city’s COVID-19 lockdown.

Brousseau was critically wounded when two men in their 20s got out of a vehicle and fired 50 to 60 shots near Rosa Parks Lane and Guerrero Street, according to media reports. A 17-year-old was also shot but suffered non-life-threatening injuries. After being critically wounded, Brousseau died at San Francisco General Hospital on Monday night. Police are still investigating the shooting, and no arrests have been made.

Brousseau’s tragic death prompted an outpouring of sadness on social media, including from Twitter’s chief marketing officer, Leslie Berland, and the director of transportation for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, Jeffrey Tumlin. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey reportedly planned to attend a vigil for Brousseau.

A bicyclist who and was passionate about safety issues, Brousseau co-founded Gay for Transit, a queer San Francisco transit collective, on social media. Janice Li, who co-founded the group with Brousseau, said he regularly gave money to charity, according to Oxygen.com.

“[He] donated $50/month to 10 different organizations,” Li said. “This is obviously incredibly shocking and tragic news for someone who was so eager to build community and for someone who has brought so much joy to our lives.”

After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, with a double major in economics and computer Science, Brousseau hired by Twitter as a product manager in September. He had also worked as an intern for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a civic digital fellow for Code.gov, a consultant for California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and a Microsoft program manager intern.

Friend and Twitter colleague Savannah Badalich told the San Francisco Chronicle that Brousseau worked on notification projects and focused on making technology more accessible and inclusive.

“He just had such fierce empathy for so many communities,” Badalich told the outlet. “He wanted to make a difference, and he did.”

According to Oxygen.com, Brousseau loved architecture, Lego, dogs, cycling, cooking, and is remembered for his generosity, kindness, and ability to bring people together.

“Courtney planted seeds in a garden he never got to see,” Brousseau’s friend, 21-year-old Karen Ni, told the website. “His hope for a better tomorrow was contagious. Courtney unapologetically showed up and offered the world joy, love, and his commitment for justice. He had a way of making you feel seen and heard.” 

The post A Beloved Queer Activist Posted This Now-Viral Tweet Moments Before He Was Gunned Down in SF’s Mission District appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

A Beloved Queer Activist Posted This Now-Viral Tweet Moments Before He Was Gunned Down in SF’s Mission District

What Insecure’s Jéan Elie Learned From Playing a Gay Man, Ahmal

The straight actor discussed getting to know the tops and bottoms of portraying a Black gay person on TV.

www.advocate.com/television/2020/5/08/what-insecures-jean-elie-learned-playing-gay-man-ahmal

Las Vegas Mayor Faces Recall Effort After Offering City As COVID-19 ‘Control Group’: VIDEO

A former professional poker player has launched a petition to recall Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, in the wake of her comments last month offering to reopen the city as a “control group” in the COVID-19 crisis.

Doug Polk kicked off the recall effort this week, releasing a video and launching a website, RecallCarolynGoodman.com.

“I don’t want to recall the mayor just because she wants to re-open Las Vegas,” Polk wrote of the campaign on Twitter. “She also cares more about the ‘sensitive’ casino owners interests than the people of Las Vegas. Additionally, she was unable to maintain a conversation with functional sentences.”

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports: From the start of the pandemic, the mayor has resisted intense measures to slow the spread of the virus: She said statewide business closures would be “devastating”prior to Gov. Steve Sisolak’s edict to do so, and later called the shutdown “total insanity.”  But it was her appearances on national television last month — first with NBC’s Katy Tur, then CNN’s Anderson Cooper — that prompted the fiercest criticisms. Goodman said the city should be used as a control group to test whether social distancing measures were working and suggested that businesses that reopen and are hit hard by virus outbreaks would simply be swallowed by competition.

More from the Hill: Polk said he has 90 days to submit a petition with 25 percent of the voters from the 2019 election, which he said is about 6,745 people. On Thursday he tweeted he had received almost a hundred people request recall kits to sign the petition. … If enough valid signatures are collected by the Aug. 4 cutoff date, it would trigger mayoral recall election, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Goodman responded to the recall effort, claiming its Polk’s choice as an American to undertake the task. “Regarding recall effort: This is America. That’s his choice,” she tweeted Thursday. Polk wrote back to Goodman’s tweet, “Thanks for the support mayor!”

The post Las Vegas Mayor Faces Recall Effort After Offering City As COVID-19 ‘Control Group’: VIDEO appeared first on Towleroad Gay News.

Las Vegas Mayor Faces Recall Effort After Offering City As COVID-19 ‘Control Group’: VIDEO