Dr. Elvis Francois, the singing surgical resident at the Mayo Clinic also known as “Dr. Elvis,” – releases a new album, “Music is Medicine” to raise funds for The Center of Disaster Philanthropy’s COVID-19 Response Fund.
Elvis Francois, the orthopedic surgery resident who has gone viral with his top-notch live performances at hospitals, knew from adolescence he wanted to help heal the world through medicine.
But through music? Not so much.
Two years after becoming an unlikely singing sensation, the 34-year-old doctor with a golden voice is releasing his first-ever EP on Friday and all the proceeds will be donated to The Center of Disaster Philanthropy COVID-19 Response Fund.
“It’s been such a unique time in all of our lives. I’m just honored to be able to share a bit of music with people, especially during these trying times,” Francois said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday. “What we do as surgeons, what we do as physicians goes a very long way, but music moves people in a way that medicine can’t.”
Francois has appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” CNN, “Good Morning America” and more programs after becoming popular for singing booming covers of John Lennon’s “Imagine” and Bill Withers’ “Lean On Me,” but just weeks ago he got a call from two executives from the Nashville-based Big Machine Label Group, asking how they could help him spread his message of hope and joy through music.
Fellow resident William Robinson, who usually accompanies Francois on piano during his performances, joined in for the recording sessions of “Imagine,” “Lean on Me,” Andra Day’s “Rise Up” and Mike Yung’s “Alright.”
Francois, who is in his last year of residency at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, began singing in high school and in church but he never took it seriously. Medicine, however, was always on his mind.
He grew up in Miami and New York and said trips to Haiti, where his family is from, really helped him find his life goal.
“I just always remember seeing long lines of people and how grateful they were to get Tylenol for free, or how grateful they were being able to just literally speak to a doctor and get their advice,” he recalled. “Since then, maybe when I was like 7 or 8, I’ve always looked at that as being something that I’d want to give the rest of my life to.”
But singing has helped him to connect to patients, and fans around the world, in a different way. He remembers going viral after posting a cover of “Imagine,” surprised that people outside of the U.S. saw and enjoyed the clip.
“My dad got a phone call from a relative in France who came across the video and that’s when I was like, ‘Oh wow!’ It hadn’t even been 24 hours,” he recalled. “I’ll get messages from nurses in Italy or messages from other residents and other health care providers or patients … A little bit of good can literally cross oceans and move people across the world.”
In the vidoe, Here & Now’s Tonya Mosley speaks to Francois about using music to fight the coronavirus.
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*Article currated: Abcnews.go , – Image: Associated Press
