concert

The Who played their first U.S. concert in Detroit, and have held that part of the country close to their hearts ever since. Singer Roger Daltrey said, “Pete Townshend and I are very aware of the problems people are having in Michigan and fell we should give something back for all the support we have had over the last 40 years.”

Give something back is putting it mildly — the classic rockers will be donating all proceeds from their October 21 concert in Michigan’s The Palace of Auburn Hills to benefit Detroit charities Gleaners Community Food Bank and Focus: Hope.

Charity is nothing new for The Who. Back in 1976, they founded a charity called Double O to help with drug and alcohol damage, domestic violence, sexual abuse, music education, emergency relief for international disasters, and young people’s prison reform. More recently, they’ve been highly involved in raising money for the Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT), a charity that works to build specialist cancer units.

Daltrey explained that, “Seventy percent of young people with cancer still don’t have access to a TCT Unit… These units are a right, not a privilege. We all know that without teenagers, without their energy and their passion for music, we wouldn’t have rock and roll as we know it. It is out duty to fight for this group and give them a voice within the National Health Service.”

Who knew these aging rockers were so altruistic?

Photo courtesy of curiosidademusical.com

Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler, are celebrating the 20th anniversary of his rainforest charity, the Rainforest Foundation, by throwing a benefit concert through which they hope to raise $2 million.

The Rainforest Foundation has been quite successful — early on, it helped to legally set aside over 37,000 square miles of land in Brazil for the Kayapo Indians after the tribe’s chief asked for help in saving his people’s land from developers. This was just a start. The Foundation has offices in New York, London, and Oslo, and serves as much as a human rights organization as one that protects the rainforest.

Often, we think about plants and animals as the primary victims of deforestation in the rainforest, but indigenous people have lived in these areas for centuries, so they are affected by displacement as well.

Sting won’t be performing solo — he’ll be joined by Billy Joel, James Taylor, and Brian Wilson. The concert will take place next Thursday at Carnegie Hall, and tickets are priced between $175 and $400.

Photo courtesy of sting.com

Rhianna is performing a series of concerts to benefit her charity, the Believe Foundation. She has already completed two performances, one in Chicago and another in San Francisco, but she has one more coming up in New York City. The only way to purchase tickets is to make a $100 minimum purchase of Escada’s latest fragrance, Moon Sparkle, at Macy’s Herald Square, Macy’s Staten Island, or Macy’s Brooklyn on this Saturday afternoon.

After each of the concerts, Rhianna makes a point to sign autographs and spend some time with children from various local charities.

Rhianna established the Believe Foundation back in 2006 to “ensure the health and well-being of our future leaders.” Believe works to “assist and inspire children who suffer from life-threatening diseases including cancer, leukemia, and AIDS.” The foundation assists on an individual level as well as on an institutional level, raising money and awareness for medical research. Believe seeks to achieve that which Rhianna has always worked toward in her own career — “to inspire with hope, courage, and love.”

For more information about the event, check out the Highline Ballroom website.

Photo courtesy of defjam.com

Earlier this month, Bon Jovi headlined a concert to raise funds for cancer research. The concert benefited Stand Up For A Cure, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending lung cancer.

The band dedicated the concert to Richie Sambora’s father, who died of cancer just last year. To honor him, Richie opened with a solo. The show took place on February 12 and was already sold out about a week ahead of time, at which point it had already raised $1 million to fund two mobile hospice units for low-income New York neighborhoods. Stand Up For A Cure announced on its website that the two state of the art units will be named the “Adam and Joan Sambora Mobile Care Units.”

Other celebrities planning to perform for the cause are Jerry Seinfeld, Brian Wilson, and Andrea Bocelli. All performances will take place throughout the year in the New York City area as part of the inaugural Stand Up For A Cure concert series.

Photo courtesy of dailymail.co.uk

The Black Eyed Peas held their fourth annual charity concert at the Avalon in Hollywood, where they, together with some of their famous friends, raised money for charity.

Specifically, they raised money for their Peapod Foundation, which provides aid to underprivileged children while also introducing them to new musical and technological programs. The Black Eyed Peas have supported numerous causes by giving free concerts and taking part in volunteer projects.

They focus not only on children’s causes here in the United States, but across the globe, such as a benefit concert for tens of thousands of people living in rural South Africa, after which they vowed to combat global issues affecting kids, particularly orphaned, foster and impoverished children.

Their funky style has brought attention (and raised funds) for children of all races — fitting for a group as diverse as the BEPs.

Photo courtesy of rollingstone.com