Pop icon Madonna is set to donate the profits from her Los Angeles concerts – upwards of $100,000 – to children orphaned in the terrorist attacks against the US. The Material Mum, who emerged in a skirt made from an American flag, returned to LA’s Staples Center for three weekend concerts after cancelling a performance early last week and led the 20,000 gathered fans in a prayer.
“Last night, we had a moment’s prayer for everybody who died,” she said on Friday. “Tonight I’d like to say a prayer for peace. Violence begets violence, and I don’t know about you, but I want to live a long and happy life, and I want my kids to live a long and happy life.” The singer called for a moment of silence. However, before the minute was up the crowd erupted into chants of “USA!”“We’re not doing this show because we want people to forget,” Madonna added. “We’re doing this because we want people to remember how precious life is.”
But Madge is just one of a chorus of musicians to donate to charity in the wake of the World Trade Center disaster. Mega-selling boy band Backstreet Boys – who lost a member of their tour crew in one of the tragic plane crashes – have pledged proceeds from last Wednesday’s Toronto performance to the newly established ClearChannel.com Relief Fund. The boys have donated upwards of $10,000 – as have Lynyrd Skynyrd, Sade and Earth Wind & Fire – to the organisation, which will aid American Red Cross efforts in New York and Washington, DC.
Record companies too are lending a hand. Vivendi Universal, parent company of Interscope and Geffen, will donate $5 million to the cause and have also pledged to match employee donations for the United Way’s September 11th Fund. Bertlesmann, home of BMG Entertainment, has donated $2 million to aid the families of firefighters and police officers lost in the tragedy. Donations from other major labels are expected in the coming days.
Pop star Michael Jackson is leading a We Are The World-style effort to record a new song to raise $50 million for the survivors and their families. The King of Pop has already enlisted Destiny’s Child, Backstreet Boy Nick Carter, and Justin Timberlake of ’N Sync to record What More Can I Give, a track Michael will produce himself, and others are said to be lining up to participate.
“I believe in my heart that the music community will come together as one and rally to the aid of thousands of innocent victims,” Michael said. “There is a tremendous need for relief dollars right now and through this effort each one of us can play an immediate role in helping comfort so many people.”
“We have demonstrated time and again that music can touch our souls,” he said. “It is time we used that power to help us begin the process of healing immediately.” In the Eighties, We Are The World raised $65 million for the USA For Africa fund.
Pop diva Britney Spears, who has also signed on to Michael’s planned tribute, has cancelled much of the promotional tour for her upcoming album, Britney. The teen idol, currently in Australia, bowed out of stops in Europe and South America and will head back to the US when a flight becomes available.
“After much thought and deliberation it is with great regret that I have decided to cancel my planned European and Latin American promotional trips,” she said in a statement. “I trust you will understand my decision to return home and spend time with my family and loved ones.”
And while Britney is detained Down Under, UK sensation Atomic Kitten will return home on Monday after witnessing the atrocities in New York first hand. The sultry trio was in Manhattan filming a video last week when tragedy struck. “Unfortunately, we saw what happened,” says band member Natasha Hamilton. “It was horrible. We were in a hotel nearby – the police came and got us, but we’re far away from it now and we are all fine but a bit shaky. We are trying to find things to make us smile.”
The Kittens were to fly back to London at the end of last week, but gave priority to those travellers affected by the attacks. They also phoned fellow Brits Craig David and Blue who were in New York, “to make sure they were OK”.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
