‘Your ticket is your donation:’ Hard Rock to hold hurricane recovery concert for Jamaica
Jamaica’s ongoing recovery from catastrophic Hurricane Melissa is getting some help in South Florida.
Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood will host a one-night benefit concert to raise money to help the island-nation as it tries to bounce back from the storm, which caused almost $9 billion in damages.
The “Stay Strong Jamaica” concert, which will feature artists like Julian Marley, Marcia Griffiths, Inner Circle, Third World, Etana, Shaggy and Wayne Wonder, several of whom call South Florida home, and will take place Jan. 2 at 8 p.m. Tickets, which began at $68.10, went on sale Thursday on Ticketmaster.
“The Stay Strong Jamaica concert is not just a concert. It is a lifeline to the people of Jamaica,” said David Hoenemeyer, chief operating officer of Seminole Gaming. “This event is about showing Jamaica is hurting and when it is hurting, we show up, and we show up big.”
Hoenemeyer said Hard Rock has over 300 employees of Jamaican descent just at its Hollywood property, and “we really feel that between them and the community around us, it’s important to show our support and give back to that community.”
Melissa devastated six parishes across Jamaica when it made landfall as a Category 5 storm on Oct. 28. More than a month later, people are still without electricity and struggling to stitch their lives back together. Hoenemeyer said 100% of the concert’s net proceeds will directly support recovery efforts in the country. That includes housing recovery, infrastructure repairs and humanitarian aid efforts across Jamaica through the Hard Rock Heals Foundation.
Jamaica’s music “has always been a force for unity, joy and resilience,” he said, and in addition to raising money, the goal is to raise spirits by “lifting people up through culture, rhythm and heart. That will be a fun night for a good cause.”
Singer Wayne Wonder, who was among three surprise performers during a press event Thursday announcing the benefit concert, told the Miami Herald that while he wasn’t personally affected by Melissa, he had close friends who were. “Roofs lost, but no lives,” he said. “That’s a blessing.”
Being part of the benefit concert, the artist behind the massive 2003 international hit “No Letting Go” said, “is a blessing and I would do it over and over again.”
In the early days after the storm, it was about finding food and people, said the country’s culture minister, Olivia “Babsy” Grange, who flew in for the announcement. Melissa killed 45 people on the island.
“As a resilient people, we have been able to pick ourselves up,” she said.
Grange said the government welcomes Hard Rock’s support, and is appealing to people to visit the Caribbean nation, which depends on tourism and has reopened its major international airports.
“This benefit concert means a lot to us,” she said, adding that Melissa’s damage has been “really devastating for a lot of people.”
On Thursday, the regional director for the United Nations World Food Program, Lola Castro, told reporters in New York that Melissa’s devastation has affected six million people in the Caribbean region, particularly residents of southern Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba in addition to Jamaica.
In Jamaica, some 280,000 people remain displaced from their homes, the U.N. said earlier this month. Humanitarian partners, have responded by distributing hot meals, food and other assistance.
The storm destroyed harvests, forests and fisheries, Castro said. Many fishermen lost their boats despite pulling them out of the water ahead of the hurricane, she said, adding, “At this moment, the situation is very, very delicate.”
Oliver Mair, consul general of Jamaica in Miami, said he was delighted to see people coming together “as one unit, one family, to help our beloved Jamaica build back.”
Like Grange, he encouraged people to visit Jamaica.
“There has been quite a bit of recovery,” he said, but the island “will need as much support as we can get from our friends. This relief concert is really just about garnering the support, giving persons another way that they can give back to Jamaica. Your ticket is your donation.”
This story was originally published December 11, 2025 at 7:39 PM.
