Wednesday June 22nd Hard Rock Live, Nate Ruess and Imagine Dragons came together to put on the All Is One Orlando Unity Concert to benefit the OneOrlando Fund. This is a fund set up to provide financial support to the victims of the Pulse tragedy and their families. 100% of the ticket proceeds from this event were donated to the fund and $700,000 was raised.
It was also a huge amount of money for these three businesses to eat on their own. I was actually moved to tears when they all talked about what Orlando or at least the situation at hand meant to them personally. Joey Fatone MC'd the event which was quite special since he is a hometown celebrity that we all love so much.
Nate Ruess opened the event to much applause. Fans went wild for his new hits such as Great Big Storm and Nothing Without Love both included on his year old solo album Grand Romantic. However for those more familiar with his work from the band Fun he sang Some Nights, Carry On and We Are Young. I've always wanted to see him live and being able to see him up close gave me chills. Ruess put his all into this show and it was clear.
Donors learned he hates shoes and seems to love to being barefoot. He can hit all the high notes except for "We'll Come Clean" from Just Give Me a Reason which he asked the crowd to help him sing. That went better than to be expected. He just dances and dances and I couldn't get enough. I wasn't alone.
Imagine Dragons entertained with music from their recent album Smoke + Mirros and of course their popular album Night Visions. Dan Reynolds has the ability to make everything fabulous. I wonder now if his feet ever touched the ground. For such a tall man he is very nimble. The donors were treated to his constant dancing which had every person smiling and clapping and moving their feet along with him.
He is also compassionate. This shows in the way he talked to us about his family, to how he interacted with his band mates to the way he spoke about how important this event was to him and his group. The most touching moment was when Reynolds sang Forever Young as a tribute to our Orlando Pulse shooting Victims.
While It would have been some kind of magic to see Reynolds and Ruess on stage together it wasn't in the cards. No matter how it went down, donors who attended the All Is One Orlando Unity Concert agreed it was undoubtedly a benefit well worth the price of the ticket no matter where you chose to sit in the concert hall. If you weren't able to visit you can still donate to the OneOrlando Fund here.