Dolly Parton gets into the festive spirit as she dresses as Mrs Claus for appearance on annual Christmas In Rockefeller Center special after helping to fund COVID-19 vaccine
She recently praised the ‘exciting’ news that her $1million hospital donation has helped to fund Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.
And Dolly Parton got into the festive spirit as she dressed up as Mrs. Claus for NBC’s Christmas In Rockefeller Center special which aired on Wednesday.
The singer, 74, looked radiant as she donned a red Santa outfit with a white fur collar and a cut-out across the chest.
Radiant: Dolly Parton got into the festive spirit as she dressed up as Mrs. Claus for NBC’s Christmas In Rockefeller Center special which aired on Wednesday
The garment also featured a black belt with a beaded embellishment while Dolly sported a Santa hat as she posed on a giant gift box.
The country star joined forces with chat show host Jimmy Fallon at the event as they performed a rendition of Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You.
Jimmy performed live from The Tonight Show set while Dolly appeared virtually from Tennessee.
Other performers at the annual event included Gwen Stefani, Kelly Clarkson, Meghan Trainor and the Goo Goo Dolls.
Donation: Dolly was recently revealed to have donated $1million to a programme which funded Moderna’s promising COVID-19 vaccine
It comes after Dolly contributed funds to Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in Nashville, Tennesse, for coronavirus research in April, after the hospital was ‘good to her and her family through the years’.
US company Moderna announced it may be 94.5% effective against Covid-19, and Dolly is namechecked in the preliminary report.
Published in the New England Journal Of Medicine, the report states that the work was supported by the ‘Dolly Parton COVID-19 Research Fund (Vanderbilt University Medical Centre)’ among other groups.
But the country music icon admitted she didn’t know it was the programme she was part of when she first heard the good news.
Speaking on BBC’s The One Show, Dolly admitted she was ‘already at work’ and doing interviews when someone asked her on air about the vaccine.
Good to her: The country singer contributed $1million to Vanderbilt Hospital, which she said has been ‘good to her and her family through the years’
She said: ‘I’m so excited about the news. I heard that yesterday and I didn’t realise that was part of the programme that I was part of. So I feel very, very honoured and proud.’
The singer said: ‘When the pandemic started many months ago I just kind of felt led to put some money into a programme at Vanderbilt Hospital, it’s a wonderful hospital here.
‘It’s been good to me and my family through the years so I donated $1million and they called it the Dolly Parton Covid fund.
‘So out of that they actually got more money and it just started developing and they were developing all these wonderful things.
Didn’t know: Dolly told The One Show’s Alex Jones and Jermaine Jenas that she didn’t know it was the programme she was part of when she first heard the news
‘So I just found out like I said today actually that it was for real that was part of the programme that we had started.
‘I’m sure many, many millions of dollars by many people went into that but I just felt so proud to have been part of that little seed money that hopefully will grow into something great and help to heal this world.’
Dolly revealed her generous donation in a tweet in April. She said: ‘My longtime friend Dr. Naji Abumrad, who’s been involved in research at Vanderbilt for many years, informed me that they were making some exciting advancements towards research of the coronavirus for a cure.
‘I am making a donation of 1 million dollars to Vanderbilt towards that research and to encourage people that can afford it to make donations.’
Dolly said: ‘When the pandemic started many months ago I just kind of felt led to put some money into a programme at Vanderbilt Hospital, it’s a wonderful hospital here’ (pictured in November 2019)