Tag: Charity (41-50 of 59)

Feb 11 2010 11:43 AM ET

Linkin Park's stark Haiti video: Watch 'Not Alone' here

Linkin Park was among the first artists to respond to the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti last month, heading up a charity album, Download to Donate, within a week. Now the band has released a video for “Not Alone,” the previously unreleased song they gave to the compilation. It’s a stark, mostly black-and-white clip that switches between images of the immense destruction in Haiti, some of them fairly graphic, and footage of Linkin Park recording “Not Alone” in a studio. Between the indoors sunglasses and the earnest messaging, Chester Bennington has never reminded me so much of Bono.

Watch “Not Alone” below, visit Music for Relief or another charity to donate to earthquake relief in Haiti, then let us know what you think of this video.



(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)

More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
How Linkin Park put together their Haiti charity album in just one week
Rihanna throws a crazy, colorful party in her “Rude Boy” video
Tom DeLonge on Angels & Airwaves’ free LOVE, the blink-182 reunion, and more
Dixie Chicks sisters announce details of new project, Court Yard Hounds
Bonnaroo 2010 lineup finalized: Jay-Z, Kings of Leon, Dave Matthews Band, and Stevie Wonder to headline

Feb 8 2010 01:57 PM ET

'Everybody Hurts': the new video for Simon Cowell's Haiti-relief song will make you cry

Last week, dozens of bold-faced names gathered to sing a new edition of “We Are the World,” but the music industry’s outpouring of support for the devastation in Haiti doesn’t stop there. The star-studded, Simon Cowell-produced remake of the R.E.M. classic, “Everybody Hurts,” hit U.K. radio last week. The song is melancholy and inspiring, especially considering the contributions from such folks as diverse as Leona Lewis, Miley Cyrus, Mariah Carey, Susan Boyle, Rod Stewart, and Jon Bon Jovi. But it’s the recently released video, which is filled with tragic images from the mess in Haiti, that will get your waterworks really going:

How many times during that six minutes did you whip out your cell phone and text $10 for Haitian relief? Yah, that’s what I thought. I can’t wait to see my cell phone bill this month.

But, Music Mixers, what are you thinking of this R.E.M. remake? Are does it move you to give? Buy? Do you think that this is better than the forthcoming “We Are the World” remake will be?

(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)

More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
Super Bowl goes indie: Arcade Fire, Grizzly Bear soundtrack ads
Super Bowl XLIV halftime show: Were the Who football wizards?
Carrie Underwood’s Super Bowl ‘National Anthem’
Ke$ha did not vandalize the Hollywood Sign, officials confirm. Come on.
Frances Bean Cobain to make recording debut
Kelly Clarkson responds to Taylor Swift’s record-label defense: ‘Take a lesson’

Feb 3 2010 11:31 AM ET

Lady Antebellum tops the albums chart

The biggest band in the country this week is officially Lady Antebellum. The country trio sold a very nice 481,000 copies of their sophomore album Need You Now, according to Nielsen SoundScan, securing the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart. As Billboard notes, that’s the biggest opening week anyone has managed since Susan Boyle’s blockbuster 701,000 bow last November.

Lady Antebellum’s success was the only thing preventing the all-star Hope for Haiti Now charity compilation from staying a second week at the top of the chart. Instead the digital-only set dropped to No. 2 after selling another 143,000 downloads, only a slight decrease from the 171,000 that put it at No. 1 the previous week.

Barry Manilow made it to No. 5 with The Greatest Love Songs of All Time, his latest covers project. This one sold 57,000, a decent number on its own but a step down from the bows made by The Greatest Songs of the Eighties (78,000) and The Greatest Songs of the Seventies (113,000) in 2008 and 2007, respectively.

Corinne Bailey Rae sold 53,000 copies of The Sea, good enough for a No. 7 entry. That’s an improvement on the 40,000 her 2006 debut sold in its first week before eventually going double platinum.

Down at No. 9, Celtic Woman moved 42,000 units of their Songs From the Heart. Kidz Bop 17, meanwhile, shifted 36,000 for a No. 12 finish.

And that was it for Top 20 debuts this week. What do you think of those results? Did you buy any of these new releases? Sound off in the comments below.

(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)

More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
Hope for Haiti Now tops the albums chart, outselling Susan Boyle
2010 Oscars for Best Song: Worst nominations ever?
Hear Simon Cowell’s All-Star Haiti benefit single, ‘Everybody Hurts’
“We Are the World” for Haiti benefit features Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Jennifer Hudson, Kanye West, Justin Bieber…

Jan 28 2010 06:37 PM ET

Quincy Jones plans 'We Are the World 25' for Haiti

Tags: , News

Quincy Jones is assembling an all-star sequel to 1985′s “We Are the World” to raise funds for earthquake relief in Haiti, EW has confirmed. A rep for Jones says the legendary producer will preside over a recording session for “We Are the World 25″ this Monday, Feb. 1, at Hollywood’s A&M Recording Studios, where the original charity single was recorded a quarter-century ago. Additionally, a rep for Paul Haggis confirms that the Crash director will film the proceedings. Initial word of the project first appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

The lineup of performers for “We Are the World 25″ — the same song as “We Are the World,” sung by a new group of artists — has yet to be finalized. The original single, which raised money for famine victims in Africa, featured a stellar roster led by co-writers Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and also including Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Diana Ross, Ray Charles, Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper, and many more. Watch it again below.

(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)

More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
New Mariah Carey video, ‘Up Out My Face’: Finally, Mimi does it right!
Matt Morris: Justin Timberlake’s “Hallelujah” duet partner talks Haiti telethon, Justin’s next move
Kanye West: New album sooner than expected?
Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger: What’s in it for you?

Jan 27 2010 02:40 PM ET

Matt Morris: Justin Timberlake's 'Hallelujah' duet partner talks Haiti telethon and Justin's next move

Justin Timberlake and Matt Morris’ slow, heartfelt cover of Leonard Cohen’s classic “Hallelujah” was a definite highlight of Jan. 22′s Hope for Haiti Now telethon. It was also the first time millions of TV viewers met Morris, an old friend of Timberlake’s who recently put out his debut, When Everything Breaks Open, on the pop star’s Tennman Records. We got Morris on the phone to talk about the telethon, his album — and when we can expect new music from his pal Justin.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did your participation in the Hope for Haiti Now telethon come together?
MATT MORRIS: I was in Los Angeles, promoting When Everything Breaks Open, when everything was coming together for the telethon. Justin asked if I would like to sing with him. I said, “Of course, in a heartbeat.”

Had he already picked which song to sing?
No. We brainstormed. He suggested it as an idea. We chewed on that for a minute. I had shot a video of me singing “Help!”, a ballad version of the Beatles song, which I posted last year on my YouTube page. He called me a few days prior and said, “Maybe we should think about performing ‘Help!’” So we took both of those songs to the rehearsal space and played through them. “Hallelujah” just felt right. The arrangement came together quickly and naturally.

It’s a song that’s been memorably covered by many artists.
It is a much-covered song, indeed. It’s a great song for it. It has the classic melody. It cuts to the heart. There have been some epic covers, some simple covers. I’m honored to be on the list of people who got a chance to cover the song, you know?

READ FULL STORY »

Jan 26 2010 12:08 PM ET

'Hope for Haiti Now' benefit expected to top albums chart

Tags: , , News

They asked, you gave: The all-star Hope for Haiti Now telethon that aired last Friday night has raised more than $61 million in charitable donations, according to a press release sent out yesterday. The benefit album collecting all the telethon performances from Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen, Jay-Z, Rihanna, Bono and the Edge, and everyone else posted very strong digital sales over the weekend, too — so much so that Hope for Haiti Now is already confidently projected to top the Billboard 200 album sales chart with around 150,000 units sold when those results are released tomorrow morning. So long, Susan Boyle. (She would likely have climbed back to the No. 1 spot if not for the Haiti benefit album; she’s now projected to remain at No. 2.)

That’s all the more impressive since the Hope for Haiti Now album can be bought only as a download, not a CD in stores. This will mark the first time that a digital-only album has topped the Billboard 200 in the 54 years since that chart began.

Did you buy the Hope for Haiti Now set online? Are you impressed by how many people bought these tunes for charity? Let us know in the comments.

(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)

More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
Ticketmaster/Live Nation merger: What’s in it for you?
Wilco gives away free concert MP3s, asks for Haiti donations
New Leighton Meester, ‘Your Love is a Drug’: Stream it here
Lady Gaga at Radio City: Best. Concert. Ever.

Jan 25 2010 04:17 PM ET

Wilco gives away free concert MP3s, asks for Haiti donations

The generous dudes of Wilco are giving away full recordings of two shows they played last year for free download on their website (h/t Pitchfork). In return, they’re encouraging (though not requiring) fans to donate $15 or more for Haiti relief to either Oxfam or Doctors Without Borders.

One of the shows Wilco is offering just so happens to be their July 13, 2009 gig at Brooklyn’s Keyspan Park, which I attended and reviewed for the Music Mix. It was an amazing show, with the band in the tightest live form I’ve ever seen them, plus cool on-stage drop-ins from Feist, Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear, and Yo La Tengo. I’m listening to the 26-track set again right now; it’s just as awesome as I remembered. Thanks are in order to Wilco for letting fans re-live these shows or hear them for the first time — and using those free downloads to help motivate fans to give more to such a deserving humanitarian cause as Haiti strikes me as a way to make a good idea even better.

So what are you waiting for? Download the show(s) at Wilco’s website, donate to one of those Haiti relief organizations if you can, and let us know your favorite parts of the MP3 sets.

(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)

More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
New Leighton Meester, ‘Your Love is a Drug’: Stream it here
Lady Gaga at Radio City: Best. Concert. Ever.
More Lilith Fair artists announced: Is this shaping up to be the best tour of the summer?
Ke$ha tells us all kinds of awesome, crazy stuff: ‘Have I made out with chicks? Hell yeah.’
Simon Cowell plans all-star Haiti benefit single

Photo credit: Scott D. Smith/Retna Ltd

Jan 21 2010 02:27 PM ET

Simon Cowell plans all-star Haiti benefit single

Who says Simon Cowell’s an icy-veined grouch? The English impresario has announced plans to put together an all-star charity single to raise funds for the suffering people of Haiti. Details beyond that are scarce: According to a gossipy report in U.K. tabloid The Sun, Cowell protegées Susan Boyle and Leona Lewis have already signed on to the project, but those artists’ reps could not confirm this when contacted by the Music Mix. And it’s unclear what song they’d be singing.

So let the speculation begin: Which artists would you like to hear on a Cowell-orchestrated Haiti benefit single, and what would you have them sing? Suggest away in the comments, below.

(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)

More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
U2′s the Edge spills details on their new album: The Music Mix Q&A
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The Swell Season makes a triumphant return to NYC’s Radio City Music Hall
Animal Collective, Jay-Z win Pazz & Jop ‘09 critics’ poll

Jan 20 2010 04:57 PM ET

Rihanna covers 'Redemption Song' for Haiti on 'Oprah'

Rihanna stopped by this afternoon’s episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was devoted to the disaster in Haiti, to perform a cover of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song.” You can download her live cover now from the iTunes Music Store for $1.29, with proceeds going to the Hope for Haiti Now telethon that she and others will participate in this Friday. So how was it?

Not bad. Rihanna stayed true to the feel of Marley’s original at first, taking the song as an acoustic dirge with a mournful organ part. By the time she got to the second verse (“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery”), though, she had shifted the tempo and arrangement in a more upbeat direction, where they stayed through the song’s conclusion — making “Redemption Song” into a Rihanna tune, in other words. As for Rihanna’s singing, she’s never had the strongest live voice, and her limitations showed here at times. But given the somber context, it felt appropriate for her voice to crack slightly.

Did you watch Rihanna on Oprah? What did you think of her “Redemption Song”? Download it from iTunes, then let us know.

(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)

More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
Animal Collective, Jay-Z win Pazz & Jop ‘09 critics’ poll
Vampire Weekend tops the albums chart
Stephen Gately: Is new Boyzone video a fitting tribute?
Susan Boyle talks to Oprah about her hospitalization

Jan 19 2010 07:19 PM ET

How Linkin Park put together their Haiti charity album in just one week

It is just a week since the Haiti earthquake. But you can now buy a Haiti-benefiting charity album of previously unreleased material by, amongst others, Dave Matthews Band, the All-American Rejects, Peter Gabriel, Slash, and Alanis Morissette.

The compilation is called Download to Donate and was overseen by Linkin Park, whose non-profit foundation Music for Relief has a history of providing aid to the country.

“Just last Monday, I was saying how I would like to start directing more of Music For Relief’s attention to Haiti and developing some sustainable housing,” says Linkin Park bassist David “Phoenix” Farrell. “Then the earthquake happened Tuesday, and we really started scrambling to figure out a way that we could garner as much support from the music community as we could to hopefully raise a ton of money for the cause.”

Linkin Park’s own musical contribution is a track called “Not Alone,” which they recorded during sessions for the band’s 2007 CD Minutes To Midnight, though the vocal tracks were never finished. “When the opportunity to do this started coming together, Mike [Shinoda] and Chester [Bennington] got back in the studio,” says Phoenix. “I believe they finished the vocals at 3am on Sunday morning.”

Over the past few days Wyclef Jean’s Yéle Haiti charity has come under criticism for alleged mismanagement of funds (the Fugee denies using any of Yéle’s money for his own personal benefit). But Phoenix is adamant that all of the money raised by Download to Donate—which is available for purchase on a pay-what-you-like basis—will go to worthy causes. “It’s a very low cost charity,” he says.”For this, 100% of the money Music For Relief raises is going to a couple of different charities: the UN Foundation and Habitat for Humanity. And Dave Matthews Band brought their BAMA Works relief effort into the mix as well. 100% of what we raise is going towards those different efforts.”

But Phoenix says that at present the band have no plans to play a benefit show. “We couldn’t,” he says. Couldn’t? That sounds ominous. Is a member of Linkin Park in jail somewhere? “We’re in a down cycle right now where we’re writing and recording,” he explains. “So we probably couldn’t get something together quick enough. No, as of an hour ago, everyone is still a free citizen.”

(Follow the Music Mix on Twitter: @EWMusicMix.)

More from EW.com’s Music Mix:
Stephen Gately: Is new Boyzone video a fitting tribute?
Susan Boyle talks to Oprah about her hospitalization
New Taylor Swift song, “Today Was a Fairytale”: Listen here
Kate McGarrigle dies at age 63

Photo credit: James Minchin

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