WICKER PARK — Pop star Tessanne Chin, the winner of NBC's "The Voice," is teaming up with local multicultural band Funkadesi for a fundraiser concert in Wicker Park that is part of Rotary International's World Polio Day.
Scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Friday at the Chop Shop's 1st Ward Events, the concert, which is hosted by TIME magazine science and technology editor Jeffrey Kluger, includes an array of guest speakers who will give a global status update on the fight to end polio, an infectious disease that impacts the brain and spinal cord and can cause paralysis.
In 2013, there were 416 confirmed cases of polio in the world, down from 350,000 in 1988, when the Rotary Club's Global Polio Eradication Initiative launched.
The event will cover the challenges that remain and how private citizens, corporations, and nonprofits can join in the final push to end polio, organizers said.
Chin, a 29-year-old Jamaican recording artist, rose to fame in 2013 when she won season five of NBC's "The Voice," singing covers of Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and Whitney Houston's "I Have Nothing."
Chin will be joined by Funkadesi, a six-time winner of the Chicago Music Awards.
According to a news release, the band has caught the attention of President Barack Obama, who said: “Funkadesi really knows how to get a crowd fired up! There’s a lot of funk in that desi!”
Tickets, which are $25, can be bought here. Doors to the show open at 8:30 p.m. at Chop Shops' 1st Ward Events, 2033 W. North Ave. in Wicker Park.
For more information on the fight to end polio, visit endpolio.org.
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