2024 Red Dress Concert: Damar Hamlin And An ‘A-List’ Of Ladies Help Bring Awareness To Heart Health

July 29, 2024 1

Source: Astrid Stawiarz / Getty

The human heart plays such an important part in literally all of our lives, whether we’re using it as the ultimate symbol of love to show the ones we care about just how much they mean — shoutout to everyone celebrating Valentine’s Day next week! — or in the more literal sense to, well, circulate the blood in our bodies in order to survive.

That’s why when it comes to heart health we are the biggest advocates on the basis of spreading awareness, much like the work being done daily at The American Heart Association.

Much to our gratitude, the 109-year-old nonprofit invited us out for a second year in a row to its annual “Go Red For Women” Red Dress Concert in New York City to help them in spreading the awareness on heart disease, heart health and everything you need to know about that vital organ beating in the middle of your chest.

As you can see above, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin officially became an AHA National Ambassador following his extremely shocking health scare last year, just two days into the start of 2023 (January 2), when he went into cardiac arrest on the field during a Monday Night Football game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Ironically, Damar’s mom and dad attended the 2023 Red Dress Concert in his honor as he healed in a hospital; this year they attended as a family, including his joyful younger brother Damir Hamlin.

Although we were prematurely interrupted by a very annoying publicist, one not of our culture by the way, Damar was able to briefly talk to us exclusively about what it meant to be present as a special guest of honor. “It’s special to be at an event like this and be aligned with The American Heart Association,” he said before the aforementioned roadblock(er), and honestly that brief quote was good enough for us! We’re just happy that he’s here to tell us anything.

Star Jones had more to say when we ran into her later in the evening, telling us in regards to the importance of heart health specifically when it comes to Black women, “As a heart disease survivor, i can sit here and tell you that Black and Brown people are the most at-risk of heart disease. If I could give one piece of advice, I would say eat less and move more! It’s time for us to be as simplistic as that — portion control, choose wisely when it comes to the foods you want to eat and just get your butt off the couch [Laughs]!”

The remainder of the night was filled with amazing fashion by way of many, many intricate red dresses and apparel, plus show-stopping performances by country star Mickey Guyton and pop starlet Demi Lovato. You might’ve seen the latter going viral recently due to an oddly-timed performance of her 2013 Billboard hit single “Heart Attack” at, umm, a heart disease awareness event.

…threw us for a loop, too!

Demi Lovato singing ‘Heart Attack’ at an event for women with cardiovascular problems GOOD BYE. pic.twitter.com/mn9LKguBdV

— anwar ⵃⴰⵎⵣⴰ (@thevenenoo) February 2, 2024

The rest of the evening went rather smoothly — 56-year-old Sherri’s playful flirtation with 25-year-old Damar, followed by her jokingly deeming him “too old” for her, was a bit of a head-scratcher though. Overall, we can’t wait to do it all again next year for the good of the cause!

A special shoutout to the “Go Red For Women” 2024 Class Of Survivors as well, which includes heart attack survivor Chantrise Holliman, stroke survivor Dipika Aggarwal, heart attack survivor Erika Livingston, stroke survivor Kylie Lough, cardiac arrest survivor Kyra Smithlin, cardiac arrest survivor Lynda Marino, peripartum cardiomyopathy survivor Marian Dancy, stroke survivor Marissa Fattore, cardiac arrest survivor Mary Wiley, postpartum congestive heart failure survivor Nazneen Saleem, hypertropic cardiomyopathy survivor Stephanie Bowden and peripartum cardiomyopathy survivor Yanela Vickers.

We salute you all!