Glee Brings Awareness to Nonprofit Fundraising Famine Relief Efforts

This holiday season, the cast of the smash hit FOX series Glee are doing more than spreading cheer with their latest album – they are raising awareness and contributing to famine relief nonprofit fundraising efforts. The Glee: The Music, The Christmas Album Volume 2 album includes the classic hit song Do They Know It’s Christmas, which they performed during their special Christmas episode. The William McKinley High School’s glee club New Directions sang the 1984 hit song at a homeless shelter during the episode. Unbeknownst to viewers the scene was filmed at an actual shelter and the cast brought food and gifts for the patrons. There was not a special message or any mention of this good deed during the episode – it simply was.

The generosity of the Glee production and cast goes beyond the location shoot. The proceeds from their version of the song Do They Know It’s Christmas are being donated to the Band Aid Charitable Trust. The Band Aid Charitable Trust was established to help relieve hunger and poverty in Ethiopia and the surrounding countries. Band Aid was formed by a group of musicians in the UK and included U2’s Bono and Adam Clayton, Bob Geldof, Paul Weller, George Michael, Phil Collins, Boy George, Paul McCartney, Sting and David Bowie to name a few. Band Aid recorded the hit song and with proceeds going to help end poverty in the developing world. The song was a huge international hit and has been covered many times.

Damian McGinty, a Glee regular and co-winner of The Glee Project, has said he was surprised that his fellow cast members didn’t know this Christmas classic. In Ireland the song is a very popular holiday favorite as it is here in Canada.

Bob Geldolf, who co-wrote the song and is a co-founder of the trust said,

“The reverberations of this little song continue down the long 26 years since Midge Ure and I wrote it. It could not be more timely now that Glee with its vast global audience of young people re-introduce it to a whole new constituency who are probably unaware of the great tragedy unfolding amongst the hungry, poor and dying of Somalia as a result of drought and a bitter and pointless civil war. This song was made specifically with that intent.”

As Geldolf said, Glee has a vast, young audience who can only benefit from such awareness. Due to the popularity of the show, it has expanded to include a live tour, a reality competition show: The Glee Project and a Glee: 3D Concert Movie which was released on Blu-ray and DVD yesterday. All this demonstrates the power that the hit show has as it is nothing short of a pop culture phenomenon. The show has generated more number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart by a non-solo act than any other artists including The Beatles. Glee achieved this Billboard success by revamping and covering songs from “Raise Your Glass” to “Jessie’s Girl.”

By doing a version of “Do They Know It’s Christmas,” the cast and producers are using their influence to raise funds and awareness towards famine relief in Ethiopa and surrounding countries. The Glee Christmas album will be a huge hit and there will be people who are experiencing this great song for the first time and with each download or purchase, they will be supporting a great cause. Congrats to Glee co-creator and writer Ryan Murphy and the entire cast and crew for spreading some holiday cheer and spreading the awareness of the Band Aid Charitable Trust to a new generation.

The original

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5cX_ncZLls[/youtube]

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