Live Aid
In 1983 to 1985, two decades of civil war and record droughts caused one of the worst famines in Ethipoian history. It is estimated that around a million people died while displacing millions of other families.
Thus in 1984, lead vocalist Bob Beldof of the Irish rock band, Boomtown Rats traveled to Ethiopia after hearing of the devastation. To combat the famine, he along with several of Ireland’s top artists banded together in a “supergroup” to record the hit single Do They Know It's Christmas? Including writing one of the best singles in Britain to date, Bandaid, the group that Beldof formed, was able to raise over ten million dollars for the Ethiopian Famine.
While the earnings certainly helped, the famine still raged on, leading Prince Charles and Princess Diana to organize another benefit concert on July 13, 1985 called Live Aid. The concert was organized in just 10 weeks featuring some of the world’s biggest stars including the likes of Queen, Madonna, and David Bowie. (Watch Queen’s incredible performance here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkFHYODzRTs)
As a dual venue concert, 70,000 people at Wembley Stadium in London came to watch the performance while 100,000 people turned out at JFK stadium. However, arguably more impactful was the worldwide viewership. A testament to the rapidly advancing global communication technology of the time, a whopping 13 satellites broadcast to an estimated 1.5 to 1.9 billion people. Although the numbers are unclear, an estimated potential of 40 percent of the world’s population “attended” the concert. Thus, Live Aid remains as one of the world’s biggest one day concerts to this day, raising an estimated 127 million dollars for the Ethiopoean famine.
I liked how your post was relatively short while still giving the reader lots of information. It is inspiring to see singers coming together to support a country in need. I was wondering if more artists came together to raise awareness and support for an issue in the world and found out that many artists are doing so. I found out that the worlds first large scale benefit concert took place in in 1971 at Madison Square Garden, New York. This concert, known as The Concert for Bangladesh, featured singers like Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Leon Russell and Ringo Starr. This concert would inspire concerts like Living Aid in the future.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/biggest-benefit-concerts-history/
Similar to Jeremy, I also found your post to be concise yet informational. I thought that the numbers/data you included really drove the point home about how impactful this event was and still is. Apparently, Bob Geldof organized another event in July 2005. 11 countries around the world participated in what was called, "Live 8", to help promote awareness of global poverty. It was also done to put pressure on G8 nations to address issues pertaining to extreme poverty.
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https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/live-aid-concert