Madonna, Beyonce join Haiti telethon
Madonna and Beyonce have added their names to the Hope For Haiti Now telethon.
Friday, 22 January 2010
The star-studded fundraiser will also feature Denzel Washington, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Madonna will perform from New York and Beyonce will perform from London.
The list of musical performers already includes heavyweights such as Bruce Springsteen, Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake and Keith Urban.
The two-hour telethon will be shown on all the major US networks and a host of other channels. It will be broadcast from New York, London, Los Angeles and Haiti.
People can begin donating even before the start of the 8pm US-time concert via phone and text.
Viewers can also download musical performances from the show via iTunes for 61 pence. Those profits will also be donated to Haiti relief.
George Clooney, who organised the telethon, told MTV: "It's a big world out there, and we all have a lot of responsibility to look out for people who can't look out for themselves. So what we can do is first and foremost, raise money. Period. That's it ...
"If I thought we could all pick up shovels and go in there and help without being in the way, I think a lot of people would do that."
Actor DiCaprio announced he was donating $1m to the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, the relief effort led by former US presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush, and one of the organisations benefiting from the telethon.
Meanwhile, Damon Albarn, Coldplay and the Arctic Monkeys have come together to put on a special auction to raise funds for Oxfam's emergency response.
Items in the auction include an offer from Damon Albarn to record a specially written piece of music, the iconic blonde Fender Stratocaster played by Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner in the band's first video and Coldplay singer Chris Martin's signed Viva La Vida tour jacket.
The auction went live on eBay at 9am on Friday and will run for ten days.
All proceeds from the auction will go to Oxfam's humanitarian response in Haiti.
The auction has been set up by Oxfam and Glastonbury Festival organiser Emily Eavis.
Chris Martin said: "I visited Haiti with Oxfam a few years ago. It's a country of extreme poverty and brutal living conditions. Most people in Port-au-Prince live in tin shacks."
"The earthquake that has struck Haiti will have turned the city into an unimaginable hell."
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