Dolly Parton promotes vaccination with Jolene rewrite

American singer Dolly Parton is promoting coronavirus vaccinations differently. She became an example for others by recreating one of her hit songs ‘Jolene’.

Parton received the vaccine shot at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee on Tuesday. Before that, she sang the new version of the song in a video.

“Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, I’m begging of you, please don’t hesitate,” she sang.

She said she had been “waiting a while” for her vaccination.

“I’m old enough to get it and I’m smart enough to get it,” the singer told fans in a video posted from the university.

She took the shot of vaccine made by Moderna. Parton, 75, helped fund the Moderna vaccine as she donated $1m (£716,000) to Vanderbilt University Medical Centre. She also financially supported the early-stage trial of the Moderna vaccine.

Earlier last month, Pardon said in an interview that she wanted to wait until vaccines were more widely available because “I don’t want it to look like I’m jumping the line”. She now said that she “wanted to encourage everybody” to get theirs.