One Love in Toronto: Bob Marley tribute concert to raise funds for Jamaica’s hurricane recovery

Rallying around the healing power of Bob Marley’s music, Jamaican Canadians are hosting a one-night benefit concert to bring hope and aid to residents still recovering from last month’s hurricane.

On Dec. 10, Harmonies of Hope is set to bring together community leaders, artists, and supporters under Meridian Performing Art Centre’s roof with one unified purpose: to raise funds, awareness, and morale for an island still reeling from billions in damage and widespread displacement.

Jamaican-born Toronto Metropolitan University Chancellor Donette Chin-Loy Chang says the idea for the relief effort emerged almost immediately after the hurricane made landfall on Oct. 28, as reports of destruction grew increasingly urgent. For Chang, who remembers when Category 3 Hurricane Gilbert hit the island back in 1988, the crisis felt personal. 

“It was no fun. It was horrible… there was no electricity for days and days and days,” Chin-Loy Chang explained to Now Toronto. 

Describing the destruction of the recent Category 5 storm as “horrific,” she stressed the importance of doing something tangible to help the community rebuild as many are still struggling without clean drinking water, current and access to food. 

“One of the things about living in the diaspora and having things happen in your homeland is that you feel helpless, right? So, I thought, ‘yes, we’ve got to do something.’”

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT HARMONIES OF HOPE?

Hosted by Toronto personalities Kardinal Offishall and Brandon Gonez, and featuring a stellar lineup of artists like Jully Black, Sean Jones, Quisha Wint and many more, the concert is at the centre of a major fundraising initiative that will distribute all proceeds among three established charities: Food for the Poor Jamaica, Helping Hands Jamaica, and the Sandals Foundation. 

Chang assures each organization selected not only has a long-standing and trusted presence on the island, but also has boots on the ground within the island’s hardest hit communities, equipped with resources to provide direct assistance. 

Despite the gravity of the situation, the spirit behind the event is one of hope. The concert, set to accommodate 1,000 attendees, has already drawn significant community support, and Chang says she’s excited to be surrounded by people who deeply care about Jamaica. 

“It’s bringing together people who want to help Jamaica,” she said. “Out of many, one people, and we’re uniting around a cause that has hurt so many of our friends and our families.” 

Wes Hall, the Jamaican-born founder and CEO of Kingsdale Advisors as well as a patron of Harmonies of Hope, says while he isn’t typically a concert-goer, he describes himself as “pretty pumped” for the night, especially as the artists will perform songs from late reggae icon Bob Marley’s catalog. Music is a major cultural lifeline to the island, and Hall says Marley’s music, rooted in unity, strength, and liberation was most fitting for the occasion. 

“When you think about ‘One Love,’ you think about Jamaica, right? And you think about Bob Marley in the process. And so to us, it just makes sense that our most famous citizen in Jamaica is to be featured,” Hall explained to Now Toronto. 

“He’s been dead for a very long time, but everybody knows him because of what his music means… All his songs have this inspiration about, yes, you may be beaten down, but you’re not going to stay down, you’re going to get up, you’re going to rise, and you’re going to put a lot of love behind what you do.” 

ORGANIZERS URGE FELLOW CANADIANS TO STEP UP

Hall emphasized the hurricane’s devastating toll, describing the widespread shortages of fresh water, food, and medical supplies, along with the destruction of clinics and hospitals. Drawing on his own difficult upbringing in poverty in Saint Thomas, he said the scale of the devastation in Jamaica strengthened his determination to give back.

“I grew up in a wooden shack that had a tin roof, built on stilts, five-foot stilts, namely because it would flood all the time when it rains. So I know what it’s like when heavy rain comes or heavy wind and you lose the roof. It’s not fun,” he shared. “What these people have gone through recently is worse than that. So I just couldn’t not do something about it. It was just not an option.” 

He also stressed that while donations of goods are welcome, financial contributions are most urgently needed to transport supplies into remote areas that have become nearly inaccessible. Hall pointed to an estimated $8 billion USD in damages to the country, which he says equals almost 41 per cent of Jamaica’s GDP, and insists the scale of recovery is staggering, but not impossible. 

“There’s an expression in Jamaica, ‘one one cocoa full basket,” Hall said, a proverb which means small consistent steps will lead to even more fruitful results over time. “Even if it’s $5, $10, $20, we all have the ability to do something.” 

And for Hall, that collective effort is what gives him hope for the island’s long road to recovery.

“We’re going to be fine over time, not right now, but over time,” he said. 

“There’s parts of Jamaica that are massively impacted by this thing. People do not have homes, no running water, no electricity, no food, no fresh water. So don’t only think about your own family. Just think about other communities that you could help to support.”  

For more information, visit Harmonies of Hope’s main event page, or to purchase tickets directly, visit Ticketmaster.