It would be churlish to be critical of the Concert for Ukraine at Birmingham’s Resorts Arena, given that it more than achieved its laudable aim, raising more than £12 million for the Disaster Emergency Committee’s humanitarian appeal. The hastily yet slickly organised show offered the usual awkward alliance between glitzily superficial entertainment and sombre, emotionally wrenching charity telethon, cutting between reality TV stars struggling to hold tears back in refugee camps and pop stars trying to dig something out of their back catalogue that wasn’t too inappropriately glib.
One moment, you have venerable former newscaster Trevor McDonald gravely declaring that he had never in his lifetime expected to see such scenes of destruction and despair, and the next you are confronted by the sight of fluffy singer Anne-Marie trembling through an overwrought ballad about body-shaming. I am not convinced that “Darling, when they put you down like that / Yeah, you can reply right back / We are beautiful, yeah” is a particularly reassuring message to send to refugees whose country is being demolished by a military superpower, but at least her heart was in the right place.
The colour palette for the evening was based around the Ukrainian flag, with most performers making an effort to source something blue and yellow from their wardrobes. Indeed, Nile Rodgers’s was blazing like a radioactive lemon as he led Chic through a medley of disco hits and yelled “Make some noise for Ukraine!” whenever the crowd was flagging. Good times!
Tom Odell wore blue and yellow nail varnish as he tickled his piano keys. The fading singer-songwriter has become the unlikeliest musical hero of the conflict, with Ukrainians adopting his 2012 ballad Another Love as an anthem of solidarity for reasons that I doubt the songwriter himself could even articulate, but he gave it a rousing turn nonetheless.
Unfortunately, no one seemed to have included Paloma Faith on the colour-coding memo. Performing Only Love Can Hurt Like This with her usual bravado, she looked like she was doing a tribute to Cruella de Vil in a red wig and giant ballgown, though on closer inspection those Dalmatian spots were probably supposed to resemble blood spatter. Daring for a prime-time ITV broadcast, but in poor taste.
