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Some 190 people were killed and 6,000 injured
in the huge explosion that reduced parts of the city to rubble
and deepened an economic and political crisis in the country.
"There's a lot of anger, there's a lot of sadness," Mika told
Reuters in a Zoom interview.
"And so I think it's important to provoke empathy, to show the
human side of things, to use music ... and just kind of focus on
that human side of it for a moment instead of just the politics,
which is ... what happens most of the time."
Money raised from the concert, to be streamed on Mika's YouTube
channel via a private link from 1900 GMT on Saturday, will go to
Save the Children and the Lebanese Red Cross to support their
work on the ground in Beirut. Tickets cost 10 pounds ($12.95).
Mika said performers would be filmed in their local surroundings
rather than all being inside, giving viewers more variety, and
the concert would feature people caught up in the blast.
They include the family of George, who was born in a hospital
that bore the full force of the shockwaves but who survived,
earning him the nickname "miracle" baby.
(Writing by Mike Collett-White; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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