Coronavirus: Canto-pop star Aaron Kwok to hold fundraising concert to help city’s struggling dancers and film industry workers
- Cheer Up & Dance performance to take place on Saturday and will be live-streamed on Facebook and YouTube
- Kwok inspired by similar concert held by Sam Hui that raised HK$372,000 in one hour
Canto-pop star Aaron Kwok Fu-shing is to throw a charity concert online on Saturday to raise funds for dancers and film crew hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Cheer Up & Dance concert will be held from 5pm to 6pm.
Kwok, 54, said the performance would help raise funds for the city’s professional dancers and crew in the film industry, who barely benefit from the government’s HK$138 billion relief package.
“I’m a dancer and an actor … I hope the concert can help raise some funding for people working in the entertainment industry to meet their urgent needs.” Kwok said.
“The industry that has been bringing entertainment to people is facing difficulties. Some people lost their jobs and some switched to other professions.”
Kwok will lead about 100 dancers in performing in the concert after being inspired by Canto-pop legend Sam Hui’s charity concert last month.
“Some of the performers are retired dancers, some changed profession and some were injured … We hope to encourage people amid the pandemic and cheer up Hong Kong,” he said.
The Covid-19 pandemic has dealt a blow to the local entertainment industry. Many dancers are self-employed, and at best are eligible for the government’s one-off subsidy of HK$7,500 if they have a Mandatory Provident Fund pension account.
The concert is co-hosted by the celebrity’s charity foundation, Aaron Kwok Love and Concern International Charity Fund, and YouTube channel Health Egg, and will be live-streamed on Facebook and YouTube.
Kwok, whose mother died three months ago, said the date of the concert, one day before Mother’s Day, was to send blessings to all mothers, and remind people to pay tributes to their mothers on Sunday.
Hui, 71, raised more than HK$372,000 from a one-hour concert streamed live from the rooftop of the Harbour City shopping complex on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront.
Some 1,000 online users donated HK$72,000, former MTR Corporation chairman Frederick Ma Si-hang gave HK$50,000 and Hui pumped in HK$250,000 of his own money, all for workers from sound production company Tom Lee Engineering who had lost their jobs due to the pandemic.
The concert attracted a live global audience of more than 2.5 million people, and was viewed a total of 6.4 million times in 24 hours.
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