Covid 19 Coronavirus fundraiser: Brooke Fraser's concert to support NZ musos

New Zealand artist Brooke Fraser will be live-streaming a benefit concert to help New Zealand musicians struggling during the pandemic. Photo / Norrie Montgomery

Singer-songwriter star Brooke Fraser has revealed more details about her upcoming benefit concert for the New Zealand music industry in an interview with Newstalk ZB's Jack Tame.

New Zealand musicians and their support networks have come under pressure as the country experiences mass venue closures and event cancellations in the fight against Covid-19.

The popular singer, also known as Brooke Ligertwood, is lending her talent in a live-streamed performance to help Music Helps Live drum up relief funds for those affected.

The event will be held on Instagram on Tuesday at 3pm New Zealand time, which is Monday evening for those tuning in throughout the United States, where Fraser currently resides.

Speaking from Orange County in California, Fraser told Tame about how she wanted to help colleagues and friends back home.

"I haven't lived in New Zealand for a long time but this is my homeland."

Her offering would be "home-grown" and intimate, she explained, saying she would host the event in her little studio space with just a piano and acoustic guitar for accompaniment.

"I think concert is probably a pretty generous term," she laughed.

However, she said she had taken a deep dive through all her work, including songs she has never performed live, before the performance.

"It's been very moving to get back into some of this catalogue again."

Renditions of Shadow Feet, Albertine and Sailboats had already been requested by fans for the line-up.

Fraser said as an artist she was bilingual in a sense.

All of her Brooke Fraser music used song and poetry to connect with other people. And in her worship music she was speaking the language of the church, which was an important part of why she was on this planet, she said.

She hoped all audiences would be able to find something they connected with, she said.

"I would hope that all of it is a bridge to hope."

Fraser won her first Grammy Award under her married name in 2018, for a song written for the Hillsong Church.

What a Beautiful Name won the Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song category.

After the win she told Billboard the song was written to "serve people and link with them in the presence of God".

"When you connect with people, you can feel their spirits being lifted," she said.

NeedToKnow3

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website