(This story, written last week, is now a tad dated. A newer commentary is at the top of the page.)
Two new TV specials are joining the music-from-home trend.
It will be a light hour of Disney tunes (complete with singalong) on Thursday … and then a marathon of global pop stars on Saturday. Details are:
– Thursday: “Disney Family Singalong” will be 8-9 p.m. on ABC, with stars performing from home, while animated characters show the lyrics. There will be songs from recent movies, including “Moana” and “Frozen” and (Auli’i Cravalho, shown here, and Josh Gad will perform) and older films.
Other performers will include Ariana Grande, Josh Groban, Demi Lovato, Michael Buble, Christina Aguilera, Thomas Rhett, Tori Kelly, Donny Osmond, Julianne Hough, Derek Hough, Amber Riley, Jordan Fisher, Kristin Chenoweth and Little Big Town. And via techno-tricks, there will be a song combining the casts of “High School Musical,” “Descendants” and “Zombies.”
– Saturday: “One World: Together at Home,” will be a mega-event. The first six hours will be streaming-only, on a wide range of sites – YouTube, Yahoo, Facebook, Amazon Prime, Twitter and many more. Then two hours (8-10 p.m. ET, 5-7 p.m. PT) will be simulcast on ABC, CBS, NBC and CW, co-hosted by two Jimmys (Fallon and Kimmel) and a Stephen (Colbert) .
During the eight hours, a wide range of people will appear. There’s no word on which ones will be singing, but the list was assembled by Lady Gaga and includes such top stars as Taylor Swift, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Billie Eilish and Eddie Vedder.
There will be stars from country (Keith Urban), classical (Andrea Bocelli, Lang Lang) and pop, including Alicia Keys, Camila Cabello, Pharrell Williams, Sam Smith, Shawn Mendes, Usher, Elton John, Billie Joe Armstrong, Chris Martin, John Legend and Kacey Musgraves.