Entertainment: "Hope for Haiti Now" telethon raises $57 million

Monday, January 25, 2010

"Hope for Haiti Now" telethon raises $57 million

The two-hour "Hope For Haiti" telethon aired Friday night on the major networks and dozens of other channels, including MTV, Bravo, and PBS, and was also streamed live online. I personally watched on MySpace. Stars like Brad Pitt, Beyonce, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Reese Witherspoon, Steven Spielberg, George Clooney reached out to viewers to encourage donations for Haiti, following a Jan. 12 earthquake that killed an estimated 200,000 people.

Bono, Jay-Z and Rihanna perform the Swizz Beatz produced "Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)"

Photo source

It started off with Alicia Keys singing "Prelude to a Kiss." I don't know how she held in the emotion because I could tell that she was ready to cry. She even tweeted about that. Some persons have said the event was melancholic and sad but that is what you need in a telethon. You play the saddest songs, retell the saddest stories and show the saddest images so that even someone in maximum security prison will want to share some of his (or her:-) commissary. I loved Coldplay's performance as well as Justin Timberlake's. And Sting. Wow! Oh he made that guitar wail and on top of that he was backed by The Roots! Oh yes I'm in musical heaven. Beyonce's performace of "Halo" was moving and of course Jennifer Hudson delivered with "Let It Be." Wyclef brought in a bit of Haitian Rara music in his performance of "Rivers of Babylon/Yele." Bono, Jay-Z and Rihanna's performance was good, not a waw but I was kinda bewildered why she could not cover herself up for this event. There is a time and place for everything and that was not a moment to make a fashion statement. Just sayin'.

Apart from the performances you had a lot of celebs on the phones taking calls. Haitian actors Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon and Jimmy Jean-Louis were present. We heard Reese Witherspoon and Taylor Swift take calls. And others spoke directly to viewers including Bill Clinton, Mohammed Ali (through a note read by Chris Rock), and George Clooney who spearheaded the entire event.

We also got glimpses of personal stories of people affected by the earthquake. It was so cute seeing Anderson Cooper trying to speak French. Overall I was touched by the event and I am sure many, many, people around the globe are as well.

Wyclef Jean performs "Rivers of Babylon"

Photo source

The $57 million total released Saturday, includes money raised by phone, text and the Web. It does not include donations by corporations or via iTunes, where people are able to buy performances of the event for 99 cents each, or the entire album for $7.99. Those funds also go to Haiti relief.

The "Hope for Haiti Now" CD is the biggest one-day pre-order in the site's history and the new song "Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)" by Jay-Z, Rihanna, Bono and the Edge, debuted during the telethon, is the No. 1 single on iTunes.

People can donate via text, phone or through the "Hope for Haiti" Web site for the next six months. Among the organizations who will receive funds from the telethon include Oxfam America, UNICEF, and the Clinton-Bush Haiti Foundation.