Last night, George Clooney cobbled together a phone bank whose average adjusted gross income was higher than Haiti’s combined gross national product in all of the 90’s. The celebrity-manned phone lines and musical performances by Madonna, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, Chris Martin, Bono, Jay-Z, Rihanna and more, pulled in over $16 Million dollars.
Did any of you dial-a-celeb and phone in a donation? If you missed your chance, you can still contribute by preordering any of the songs performed last night on iTunes.
I applaud the stars’ desire to contribute to a good cause, but groaned when Beyonce inserted “Haiti” into her song “Halo.” I can’t stand it when artists insert words from current events willy-nilly into already established hit songs for the purposes of “tribute”. Bastardizing one of your already established hit singles just seems like such a lazy way out. I cringed when Elton John did it with “Candle in the Wind”, and Beyonce sure as shit ain’t no Elton John.
More telethon clips featuring Robert Pattinson and his facial hair, Madonna, JT, Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Swift, and Xtina after the jump.
Editor’s Note: As of this morning, the news services have upgraded the amount of money raised by the telethon to an estimated $57 Million!!
Damn, I forgot what an amazing voice Christina has! Got goosebumps all over the place!
Christina yes…Beyonce, not so much. I might be the only person who thinks her voice is highly over-rated. Face = 10, voice = 6. Christina is freakishly gifted, voice-wise and she can bring people to their knees.
I loved that Sting chose to sing a 30 year old Police song, Driven To Tears. It’s amazing how even though people help, things never seem to really get better. Here is a link to some facts about the song http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1476.
Lyrics:
How can you say that you’re not responsible?
What does it have to do with me?
What is my reaction, what should it be?
Confronted by this latest atrocity
Driven to tears
Hide my face in my hands, shame wells in my throat
My comfortable existance is reduced to a shallow meaningless party
Seems that when some innocent die
All we can offer them is a page in a some magazine
Too many cameras and not enough food
‘Cos this is what we’ve seen
Driven to tears
Protest is futile, nothing seems to get through
What’s to become of our world, who knows what to do
Driven to tears
I can’t recall ever hearing a Mary J. Blige song (though I loved her guest appearance on 30 Rock), but I loved her performance of Hard Time Come Again No More.
If anyone went to the iTunes store last night and was annoyed by the lack of promotion for this event, check again today. You can click on Hope For Haiti and find the songs. I guess I was too impatient.
Anyone else’s ears hurt during Alicia Keys’ performance? She needs to calm down on those high notes.
jennifer hudson looks great! i almost didn’t recognize her!
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