"I just knew I had to do something," street pianist Davide Martello tells the Guardian. "I wanted to be there to try and comfort, and offer a sign of hope." Martello, who was in Germany when the news of Friday's tragic terrorist attacks in Parisbroke, quickly decided to make the 400-mile drive to perform John Lennon's 1971 single "Imagine" as a tribute to victims and their loved ones. "I can’t bring people back but I can inspire them with music and when people are inspired they can do anything," Martello says. "That’s why I played 'Imagine.'"
Martello, who usually performs under the name Klavierkunst, frequently travels to the locations of harrowing human tragedies in an effort to offer that same hope. According to the Guardian, he also made an appearance at the site of the Charlie Hebdo massacre earlier this year. "I got to the end of playing 'Imagine' and just couldn’t carry on," Martello reveals. "Even if I wanted to it was just too emotional."
Lennon's emotional plea for peace was also performed by Coldplay in Los Angelesearlier this weekend as a way of honoring the lives lost in France, many of whom were killed inside the Bataclan theater during an Eagles of Death Metal performance.
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