Helping Haiti, the single released by Simon Cowell and The Sun, has become the century’s fastest-selling charity single.
The British newspaper reported that it had sold 206,000 copies in two days.
Cowell selected the REM tune Everybody Hurts for the single, which the paper forecasts will hit number one in the charts this weekend.
Cowell masterminded the track on the request of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who arranged for the VAT tax to be dropped on it.
Stars including Robbie Williams, Cheryl Cole and Susan Boyle have contributed to the song. Half the proceeds will go to the Disasters Emergency Committee and half to The Sun’s Helping Haiti Appeal.
Simon Cowell did a mighty fine job organizing and finding artists to sing on the cover of REM?s hit ?Everybody Hurts?. The cover features some of the biggest artists on the UK and US music scenes. The song will be available for download on Sunday, February 7, and released on CD the following day. The song features the voices of Leona Lewis, Mariah Carey, Jon Bon Jovi, Kylie Minogue, Miley Cyrus, Susan Boyle, Mika, Michael Buble and more. According to HMV, the single will split proceeds 50/50 between Disasters Emergency Committee and The Sun?s Helping Haiti appeal. Go out and buy the single and help the earthquake victims!
Famed musicians, including REM and Pearl Jam, have filed a series of Freedom of Information requests, asking the government to declassify documents that would reveal which artists? catalogs were used in several prisons and military detention centers, including Guantanamo Bay. The music may have been used in controversial interrogation methods in which detainees are forced to listen to music at extreme levels for hours on end. The requests were filed by Close Gitmo Now, an organization aimed at pressuring Congress to support President Obama?s intentions to close Guantanamo Bay prison. Their allegations are based off the testimony of former prisoners and guards that identified music from artists like Britney Spears to AC/DC to the Sesame Street theme song.
