Like other city dwellers around the world confined to the coronavirus, New Yorkers usually clap, clap with spoons or tambourines, or shout “thank you” from their window, in the evening at 7 p.m., to pay tribute to the caregivers mobilized in the face of the pandemic which struck the United States after several European countries.
However, the ritual can vary. Thursday, the volunteer choir of the Peace of Heart (“Peace of Heart” choir) had called to sing New York, New York, Frank Sinatra’s homage to this metropolis “who never sleeps”, symbol of urban boiling silenced for a month. Having become a great success after being recorded in 1979, the song (signed Fred Ebb and John Kander) was originally performed by Liza Minelli in the movie New York, New York (1977) by Martin Scorsese.
The song echoed in some New York neighborhoods for about ten minutes, coming from many windows and balconies – thousands across the city, depending on how many people had indicated on the event’s Facebook page that they wanted to participate.
“It’s an iconic song” with “a real message about getting out of it”choir manager Robert Hornsby told AFP. “There is even a passage that says, Come on, you can do it, New York, and that’s where I think we’re all at. That’s why we chose it (…) and if you don’t know the lyrics, you can just go back to the parts you know. “
This is what Vivian Young and her husband did, out on First Avenue with their two children, to hum this famous tune, and greet, from a distance, friends who had come up to sing on the roof of their building.
This daily tribute to caregivers, “It lifts your spirits, it’s something you expect at the end of the day, to change all this bad news”, says Vivian Young, smiling behind her mask. Her husband Mark says he is convinced that the American economic capital is “getting by”, citing the latest figures for deaths and declining hospitalizations. Soon, “the markets will rebound, people will fight for a table in the restaurant”, he predicts before adding: “I hope I am right.”
The ritual should however continue for a while: if the epidemic seems to have stabilized in New York State, after infecting more than 213,000 people and killing more than 11,500 people, Governor Andrew Cuomo on Thursday extended the measures of confinement until May 15.
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