the Informer

As time can tell, music is a universal language that transcends differences and allows us all as humankind to, for a moment, be one. Evidence of this is apparent in major musical efforts to bring attention to social issues such as poverty and disease such as LiveAid, Live8, and most recently, the Hope For Haiti Now Telethon that broadcasted on all major networks on Jan. 22.

On Tuesday, Jan. 12, a major earthquake of a 7.0 magnitude hit the capital city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti at around 5 p.m., home to over two million citizens in that city alone, devastating the already struggling third-world country. Since then, the response of mass media, especially the entertainment industry has been rapid and remarkable.

Radio stations showed their support to the Haitian community by playing Haitian music on their stations. These included New York’s 97.1 (Hot 97) which traditionally only played Hip-Hop, R&B and Reggae music.

DJ’s have been encouraging all listeners to text various organizations to make donations. Within a few days of the disaster, Major League Baseball donated $1 million, half of which was donated by the New York Yankees.

Two days after the earthquake, rock band Blink-182 created a t-shirt for Haiti and began selling it on their merchandise Web site with all profits going to the country.

On the Sunday following the quake, Larry King hosted a two-hour telethon on CNN in which celebrities like Snoop Dogg, Ringo Starr, Kobe Bryant and John Mayer collected donations and auctioned off items such as a pair of King’s suspenders that sold for $1,000. In all, they raised $5 million in donations for UNICEF and the Red Cross that night. To explain how the money raised gets allocated and specifically what is being done with it, Pete Wentz (bassist for Fall Out Boy) showed the viewers a typical UNICEF tent that was set up in King’s New York studio and described what everyone’s contributions actually go towards such as medical supplies, etc. “One [tablet],” Wentz explained, “costs 1 cent, and it can keep 5 liters of water clean,” stressing how even a small donation makes a big difference.

The biggest fundraiser thus far had a whole load of celebrities involved as well as thousands of American viewers: the Hope for Haiti Now telethon was organized by George Clooney. Dozens of celebrities from Oprah Winfrey to Ben Stiller manned telephones collecting contributions from viewers from all over. At the event, several entertainers gave major personal donations such as Giselle Bundchen ($1.5 million) as well as Sandra Bullock and Brangelina who each donated $1 million.

The two-hour special contained several performances by artists that either covered well-known songs of inspiration or new tracks they had just penned for this cause.

The show was opened by Alicia Keys who was followed by a stream of beautiful and extremely moving performances by Jennifer Hudson, Sting and Justin Timberlake to name a few, and was closed by Wyclef Jean with a very uplifting song combination of “Rivers of Babylon” and “Yele.”

Up until very recently, Jay-Z’s new single “Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)” which he performed for the event alongside Rihanna, Bono and The Edge was number one on iTunes only to be passed by Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris’ cover of Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah.”

Currently the number one album on iTunes is the “Hope for Haiti Now “album and the amount of money that has been raised from album sales is still being calculated. According to a recent calculation from USAToday, the telethon has raised $61 million to date and is continuing to raise more, not including sales from iTunes.

As we continue to see, the entertainment industry has played a major role in bringing people together for a bigger cause and aiding those in devastating need.

There is no need to feel like the job is done or as though whether we help or not does not matter because every tiny bit helps.

Donations are still being collected from hopeforhaitinow.org as well as from the American Red Cross, Oxfam America, iTunes, etc., so even if it just a 99 cent download, you are helping.

Courtesy of Babble.com