Robbie Williams, Take That and Jay-Z line-up for Simon Cowell’s Haiti charity single
Robbie Williams, Kylie Minogue and Leona Lewis are to sing on Simon Cowell’s charity single to raise funds for the victims of the Haiti earthquake.The music mogul has rallied stars including Rod Stewart, James Blunt, Susan Boyle, X Factor judge Cheryl Cole and winners Joe McElderry, Alexandra Burke and Lewis.
The single also marks a reunion of sorts, with both Williams and his former Take That bandmates taking part, although it is not known whether their parts will be recorded together.
Williams said: “I’m very honoured to be asked to contribute to the single. We can all do something to help the people of Haiti – and I urge everyone to do what they can.”
They join Mariah Carey, Miley Cyrus, Michael Buble, James Morrison and Mika on a cover version of REM’s Everybody Hurts, currently being recorded in Los Angeles.
Fifty per cent of proceeds from the single will go to Helping Haiti, a fund set up by The Sun , and the rest to the Disasters Emergency Committee.
The single comes after a flurry of celebrity support for the victims of the January 12 earthquake that killed an estimated 200,000 people and left around 1.5 million homeless in and around Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince.
Last Friday’s Hope for Haiti Now telethon hosted by MTV, and broadcast across 60 networks, saw the likes of Rihanna, Jay-Z, Coldplay, Bono, Madonna, Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen, Alicia Keys, Justin Timberlake and Stevie Wonder performing during a live link-up between London, New York, Los Angeles and Haiti.
Brad Pitt, Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Clint Eastwood, Halle Berry, Jon Stewart, Nicole Kidman, Samuel L. Jackson and Will Smith answered the phones, while George Clooney – who also presented the event – Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Leonardo DiCaprio and Sandra Bullock all pledged $1 million to help the devastated Caribbean nation. The supermodel Gisele Bundchen gave $1.5 million.
The event’s finale came from the hip-hop singer Wyclef Jean, a Haitian native who became the face of the charity appeal after he flew to Haiti to pull bodies from the rubble, and raised more than $2 million with his Yele Haiti Foundation. Jean performed Rivers of Babylon before calling out: “Enough of this moping man, let’s rebuild Haiti, let’s show ’em how we do it where we come from!”
The event has raised $61m (£37.6m), with this sum expected to grow considerably as the public continue to download the telethon’s performances from the Apple’s iTunes store, on sale at $0.99 (61p).
In a separate event in Los Angeles, Radiohead raised more than $500,000 (£308,192) for the appeal, with proceeds going to Oxfam International. (source: timesonline.co.uk)