Nick Cave mocks ‘panic-inducing’ video of celebrities singing John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’

Singer admits he was not a fan of Gal Gadot’s cover version in latest newsletter about coronavirus

When the video first emerged of Gal Gadot, Natalie Portman and other celebrities sincerely singing John Lennon’s “Imagine”, the world had the collective urge to vomit.

Now, Nick Cave has offered his own critique of the cover, calling it “the most panic-inducing version ever recorded”.

In his newsletter The Red Hand Files, the singer urged his fans to take the threat of coronavirus seriously and stay indoors, writing: “From within the clamour and tonnage of information and misinformation, of opinions and counter-opinions, of blame-games and grim prophecy and the most panic-inducing version of ‘Imagine’ ever recorded, emerges a simple message – wash your hands and (if you can) stay at home.”

Gadot shared the video of herself and fellow stars singing on Instagram last week, in an attempt to lift spirits amid the coronavirus outbreak.

In the clip, she explains she has been in isolation for six days and the global crisis has left her feeling “philosophical”.

Gadot sings the intro to Lennon’s 1971 classic before a host of celebrities including Jamie Dornan, Sia, Zoe Kravitz, Chris O’Dowd, Will Ferrell, Norah Jones, and Cara Delevingne take it in turns to sing portions of the song.

Cave’s The Red Hand Files is a place, he says, in which he can “offer dubious existential notions, religious meditations, unsound advice, millennial senilities and general annoyances, while hopefully simultaneously extending a little human kindness and compassion”.

Elsewhere in his new post “What do we do now?”, Cave writes about being “faced with a common enemy” and notes “now is the time to be cautious with our words, our opinions”.

“In isolation, we will be presented with our essence – of what we are personally and what we are as a society,” he states. “We will be asked to decide what we want to preserve about our world and ourselves, and what we want to discard.”

He continues: “Eventually these questions will become of acute significance, but they are not for now. Now is a time to listen to those in more informed positions and to follow instructions, as difficult as that may be, as we step into the unprecedented unknowable. We should be careful about the noises we make – especially those with a public voice – and should not pretend to know what we do not.”