The annual Carousel of Hope event, part of the Children’s Diabetes Foundation, went virtual for the first time this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The fundraising gala opened with a stunning duet by Cynthia Erivo and Adam Lambert performing Aretha Franklin and George Michael’s, ‘I Knew You Were Waiting.’

The event featured other performances from singing sensations Andrea Bocelli, Rod Stewart, and Jennifer Hudson. Gwen Steffani and Blake Shelton sung their duet ‘Happy Anywhere,’ and Tony Bennet did a splendid performance of ‘The Way You Look Tonight.’ Barry Manilow did a moving performance of ‘One Voice,’ accompanied with a choir and American singer / songwriter Babyface, performed with his guitar in a black and white video wearing a tee-shirt displaying the words ‘Freedom.’ Video clips of previous performances by superstars Beyoncé from 2004 , Ricky Martin from 2000 and Whitney Houston from 1990 were also shown. The gala hosted by Jay Leno, also displayed video appearances by stars George Clooney, Tom Hanks and Oprah.

Grammy winning producer and musical director of the Carousel Ball shared his favourite memory of the event to variety.com whereby a less famous Michael Bublé, “Kept walking around saying ‘this is more incredible than the Oscars’ – not that he had ever been to the Oscars at that point,” he recalled. “Or getting to accompany a very young Celine Dion, as she dazzled the audience with her out of the world voice.”

Founded in 1978, The Carousel of Hope Ball was set up as a fundraiser for the Barbara Davis Centre for Diabetes in Aurora, Colorado and the Children’s Diabetes Foundation. Davis established the foundation in 1977 due to her daughter suffering from Type 1 diabetes which has since aided research to treat young people with the condition. For the first time in 40 years, the annual charity event opened its doors to everyone with a virtual extravaganza. Saturday nights virtual gala raised more than $1 million whilst also being a night for celebration for Davis’ 90^th birthday. The incredible closing performance of ‘That’s What Friends Are For,’ which was delivered over zoom by Sam Smith, Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick, Kenny G and Erivo was accompanied by a video of photos celebrating Davis’ legacy and the Carousel Ball.

Temptation is taken from the tracklist of Celia, Tiwa Savages’ swiftly approaching new record. Celia will be the fourth studio album from Savage and is set for release on Friday the 28th of August. This month Savage shared two tracks from the upcoming Celia, entitled Koroba and Dangerous Love. 

Sultry and smooth, Temptation encapsulates why Tiwa Savage is widely known as the ‘Queen of Afrobeats’. With sunshine bright instrumentation, powerhouse vocals and Afrobeats-infused percussion, Temptation explores an unrelenting desire between two people. 

Savage leads the first verse and chorus of Temptation, her mighty vocals belt the lyrics: “If you do me nice/If you do me right/I’ma give you everything you like.”, which immediately set the song’s flirtatious tone.

Sam Smith’s work on the second verse and chorus takes Temptation up a notch. Smith’s angelic voice sings “The shape of your body, replays in my mind/The sound of your promises, echo in me deep inside/Crave your attention, it compliments my pride”, amping up the track’s sensuality. 

 Savage and Smith continue with an amorous back and forth for the remainder of the track, singing “Temptation, temptation/That’s all I see when I look at you.” When speaking on the single, Tiwa Savage sang Smith’s praises. In a recent statement on Genius, Savage relayed that “we don’t know how amazing Sam is…it just changed the face of the project.”

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‘Temptation’ with @samsmith is #1 on @Applemusic New Music Daily GLOBAL playlist. Go stream it!Cc @motownrecords

A post shared by Tiwa Savage ⚔️ (@tiwasavage) on Aug 24, 2020 at 11:39am PDT

An accompanying lyric video of Temptation dropped concurrently with the track’s release yesterday. A smoke show of pink and purple hues, Savage premiered the lyric video to her official YouTube channel, which has received a whopping 65,000 views.   

Along with fan’s joyous reaction to Temptation, Savage and Smith’s creative collaboration has been warmly received by Apple Music, as the new single is currently sitting at #1 on the streaming giant’s coveted playlist, New Music Daily. Savage took pride in the well-deserved recognition with a post on Instagram, which has already gathered over 42,000 likes from Savage’s extensive following.

Sam Smith also took to social media to ring in the release of Temptation. Featuring a snippet of the sultry song to their Instagram platform, the Only One singer added the sweet caption: “I had so much fun working on this one with the unstoppable and beautiful talent that is @tiwasavage – thank you for the opportunity.” Garnering over 189,000 views, fans were clearly ecstatic at the news of the talented artist’s creative union. 

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I had so much fun working on this one with the unstoppable and beautiful talent that is @tiwasavage – thank you for the opportunity. Hopefully one day we will be dancing and singing this together, cocktail in hand x

A post shared by Sam Smith (@samsmith) on Aug 24, 2020 at 9:45am PDT

Celia Tracklist:

1. Save My Life
2. Temptation
3. Pakalamisi
4. Koroba
5. Bombay
6. Dangerous Love
12. Park Well
13. Interlude (US)
14. FWMM
15. Ole
16. Attention
17.Glory
18. Celia’s Song