Simon Cowell Launches Haiti Single
By admin • Feb 2nd, 2010When a catastrophic earthquake rocked Haiti at the end of January, thousands of people lost their lives, while many more were left injured, homeless and without food or water.
Since the tragic event, people all over the world have been quick to dig deep into their pockets in order to help with the appeal to get relief and medical attention to the stricken nation - which is already the poorest in the western hemisphere - and Simon Cowell was among them.
The pop mogul has gathered together some of the biggest acts in the charts today to record a charity single in aid of the relief effort, with half of the proceeds set to go towards the Helping Haiti fund, set up by The Sun.
Meanwhile, the rest of the proceeds will also go to helping the victims of the earthquake by being donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee.
The cover of REM’s Everybody Hurts received its first radio airing today (February 2nd) and will be available for download on February 7th.
Stars including Simon’s fellow X Factor judge Cheryl Cole were quick to offer their voices to the cause, meeting to record their individual parts in both Notting Hill and Los Angeles.
Cheryl is joined on the track by Kylie Minogue, Mariah Carey, Susan Boyle, Take That, JLS and Westlife.
The winner of this year’s X Factor Joe McElderry also contributed, along with previous winner Leona Lewis.
Robbie Williams, Jon Bon Jovi, James Blunt, Michael Buble, Rod Stewart, Miley Cyrus and Mika also took part.
But this is not the only way in which stars of the stage and screen have been lending a hand to the people of Haiti.
In the US, the Hope For Haiti Now concert - organised by George Clooney and Wyclef Jean, who was born in Haiti - took place as part of a telethon to raise money and featured performances from Stevie Wonder, Coldplay, Sting, U2 and Bruce Springsteen and has also seen millions of dollars raised.
Meanwhile, other musicians have re-recorded the 1985 charity single We Are The World.
Written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, the track features performances from 75 musicians, including Barbara Streisand, Celine Dion, Pink and Jennifer Hudson.
The Haiti earthquake had a huge magnitude of 7.0, with its epicentre located just 16 miles from the country’s capital Port-au-Prince. It is estimated some three million people have been effected by the quake, with hundreds of thousands losing their lives, while hundreds of thousands more homes and commercial buildings have either collapsed or been damaged.
As charities work hard to get food, water and medical supplies to the stricken, Britons may wish to do their bit by donating to one of the relief efforts or downloading the charity single.
Will you be buying Everybody Hurts?