Jane Fonda’s Rise Up, Sing Out concert in New York will unite major artists, activists, and thousands of remote viewers in a nationwide First Amendment rally through music, speeches, and coordinated sing-alongs.
by Paul Cashmere
Jane Fonda is bringing together some of the most recognisable names in entertainment for a large-scale political and musical event in New York City titled Rise Up, Sing Out, a concert focused on defending First Amendment freedoms in the United States. Speaking on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Fonda outlined the purpose of the event, which is set to take place at Town Hall in Manhattan on June 14, with a wider livestream and organised viewing parties across the country.
The concert, organised through the Committee for the First Amendment, is designed as both a live performance and a synchronised national participation event. According to Fonda, the initiative aims to use music as a unifying tool for civic engagement at a time she describes as a “critical crossroads” for democratic rights and freedom of expression.
Fonda told Jon Stewart that the event is centred on First Amendment protections, which safeguard freedom of speech, religion, press, peaceful assembly, and the right to petition the government. She said the concert will feature a mix of performances, activism, and collective singing designed to turn audience participation into a form of civic action.
The lineup includes Patti Smith, Rufus Wainwright, Bette Midler, Joy Reid, Sasha Allen, and Broadway Inspirational Voices, among others. Additional participants mentioned include Julia Roberts and Lily Gladstone, reflecting the broad reach of the project across film, music, journalism, and theatre.
A defining element of Rise Up, Sing Out is its hybrid structure. In addition to the Town Hall performance in New York, organisers have registered more than 5,000 viewing parties across the United States, spanning red, purple, and blue states. These gatherings will receive song sheets, turning the broadcast into a coordinated sing-along experience. Fonda described it as a way of extending the energy of a live concert into homes and community spaces simultaneously.
“We can make them feel across differences, and we can show them how it could be,” Fonda said during the interview, emphasising the role of artists in shaping public imagination. She argued that entertainers have historically played a role in social movements by helping audiences visualise alternative futures and shared values.
The Committee for the First Amendment, which Fonda has revived, is modelled on an earlier organisation formed during the McCarthy era in the 1940s. That original group included Hollywood figures such as Lucille Ball, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Henry Fonda. The contemporary version positions itself as a collective of entertainment industry professionals responding to what it sees as renewed pressure on free expression.
Fonda said the modern committee was reactivated on October 1 and has already begun staging public actions, including events outside major cultural institutions. She referenced past precedents where artists and audiences responded collectively to political pressure through coordinated cultural resistance, including boycotts and subscription cancellations.
A key theme in Fonda’s explanation is the idea of “noncooperation,” which she described as a strategy for applying pressure through collective action. In the interview, she pointed to recent controversies involving late night television and corporate decision making as examples of how public response can influence institutional behaviour.
She also expanded on the historical role of music in political movements, citing civil rights era protest songs and other examples where performance and activism intersected. For Fonda, music is not only a cultural expression but a mechanism for organising communities and sustaining momentum during periods of political tension.
The Rise Up, Sing Out concert is structured as a 90-minute program that blends live performance with speeches and audience participation. Fonda said the event will include calls to action and interactive components intended to encourage ongoing engagement beyond the broadcast itself.
Organisers are also positioning the concert within a broader tradition of large-scale benefit and advocacy events. Comparisons have been drawn in commentary to landmark moments such as Live Aid in 1985, which brought together global audiences for famine relief, and Australia’s Fire Fight Australia concert in 2020, which raised funds in response to the bushfire crisis. While the objectives differ, the structural similarity lies in the use of mass music events as vehicles for collective action.
Fonda framed the current moment as one where entertainment and journalism intersect with democratic responsibility. She argued that journalists and artists alike are increasingly part of the same ecosystem of public expression and, as such, share responsibility for protecting open discourse.
“What we have to do is become living ambassadors to an irresistible future,” she said, describing a vision of community-based activism grounded in empathy and local connection. She also emphasised the importance of sustained organising rather than spontaneous mobilisation, noting that effective movements require time, dialogue, and structure.
Looking ahead, Rise Up, Sing Out will be livestreamed globally, with international audiences able to participate through online access while U.S. viewers host coordinated gatherings. Fonda indicated that the event is intended not as a one-off concert, but as part of an ongoing campaign by the Committee for the First Amendment.
The New York performance on June 14 marks the first major public activation of the revived committee, signalling what organisers hope will be a continuing series of cultural and political events centred on artistic freedom and civic engagement.
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