“Today, for the first time, I performed my dad’s song, ‘Imagine,’ in public,” Lennon, 59, wrote on YouTube. “The song reflects the light at the end of the tunnel, which we all hope for.” Beatle singer and songwriter John Lennon has unveiled the adaptation of his father’s ode to peace as part of the Stand Up For Ukraine campaign, a global fundraising effort broadcast from Warsaw, Poland. “I always said that the only time I would think of singing ‘Imagine’ would be if it was ‘End of the World,’” Lennon wrote. But “the war in Ukraine is an inconceivable tragedy,” he explained. “As a person and as an artist, I felt compelled to respond in the most important way I could.” Julian Lennon performed John Lennon’s father’s “Imagine” at a fundraiser for Ukraine. YouTube / Julian Lennon Julian Lennon said the song represents “the light at the end of the tunnel we all hope for.” YouTube / Julian Lennon Lennon said he broke his vow never to sing the song because the Ukraine war is an “inconceivable tragedy.” YouTube / Julian Lennon The official video clip showed Lennon singing — in unbelievably rhythm like his father — surrounded by candles, accompanied by acoustic guitarist Nuno Bettencourt. The show closed with a televised European Union commitment to raise $ 10.1 billion in public, private and corporate cash to help refugees. Lennon is not the first artist to make headlines making music in support of Ukraine. At midnight on Friday, Pink Floyd – minus Roger Waters – released “Hey Hey Rise Up”, his first original music in 28 years, for the United Nations Humanitarian Fund for Ukraine. Guitarist and singer David Gilmour told the Guardian that he was inspired by Ukrainian musician Andriy Khlyvnyuk, who left the BoomBox band’s US tour to fight in Ukraine. Gilmour saw a video on the musician’s military equipment Instagram singing a protest song in Kiev’s Sofiyskaya Square and then he was inspired to do something about it. “I thought: this is very magical and maybe I can do something about it,” Gilmour said. “I have a great platform [Pink Floyd] have worked all these years. It is really difficult and frustrating to see this extremely crazy, unjust attack by a great power on an independent, peaceful, democratic nation.
