From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia A Concert for Hurricane Relief
A Concert for Hurricane Relief
A Concert for Hurricane Relief was an hour-long, celebrity- • A piece narrated by Jimmy Smits
driven benefit concert broadcast live. Sponsored by the • Claire Danes - presenter
NBC Universal Television Group, its purpose was to raise • A piece by Brian Williams
money, relief, and awareness in response to the loss of • Faith Hill - performing "Precious Lord, Take My
life and human suffering that resulted from Hurricane Hand"
Katrina in five southeastern States in the United States • Leonardo DiCaprio - presenter
in 2005. Hosted by Matt Lauer, it was simulcast from the • Matt Lauer comes on to encourage viewers to
New York studios of NBC located in 30 Rockefeller Plaza, contribute
New York, New York, on NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, and i: Inde- • Concert’s finishing number led by Harry Connick Jr,
pendent Television on September 2, 2005. where close to everyone performed "When the
Viewers were encouraged to contribute to the Amer- Saints Go Marching In"
ican Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund by phone or on the
Web.
The benefit generated $50 million and was watched
Harry Connick Jr
on television by approximately 8.5 million viewers. A Concert for Hurricane Relief, was hastily pulled together
after New Orleans native musician Harry Connick, Jr.
called NBC Universal chairman and CEO Bob Wright per-
Musical guests & presenters sonally to offer his services and encourage the network
• Matt Lauer intro to embrace relief efforts.
• Harry Connick Jr (piano) and Wynton Marsalis Connick’s voice was hoarse when he performed at the
(trumpet) with Victor Goines (clarinet), Lucien benefit, after he had been on the air several times live
Barbarin (trombone) and Charles Neville (sax) - from New Orleans in the last few days, trying to raise
performing "Bourbon Street Parade" awareness of all the help the city and the people there
• Hilary Swank - presenter was in need for.
• A piece on what the hurricane did to New Orleans
• Tim McGraw - talks with Matt Lauer - performing
"More Power to Ya"
Controversy
• Richard Gere - presenter The concert’s most notable moment was rapper Kanye
• Tim McGraw - performing "Something Like That" West’s controversial statement that President George W.
• Guitar auction starts Bush "doesn’t care about black people." Controversy
• Eriq La Salle and Lindsay Lohan - presenters arose when Kanye West was presenting, as he deviated
• A piece, narrated by Faith Hill from the prepared script, and said:
• Faith Hill - performing "There Will Come a Time"
• Glenn Close and John Goodman - presenters I hate the way they portray us in the media. You
• Aaron Neville - performing "Louisiana 1927" see a black family, it says, ’They’re looting.’ You see
• New York Governor George Pataki, gave a check for a white family, it says, ’They’re looking for food.’
$2.5 million to the Red Cross represented by Bonnie And, you know, it’s been five days [waiting for fed-
McElveen-Hunter eral help] because most of the people are black. And
• A piece by MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough even for me to complain about it, I would be a hyp-
• Harry Connick Jr talking with Matt Lauer ocrite because I’ve tried to turn away from the TV
• A piece narrated by Harry Connick Jr because it’s too hard to watch. I’ve even been shop-
• Harry Connick Jr (piano, voice) with Wynton ping before even giving a donation, so now I’m call-
Marsalis (trumpet) - performing "Do you know what ing my business manager right now to see what is
it means to miss New Orleans" the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine
• Mike Myers and Kanye West - presenters if I was down there, and those are my people down
• Chris Tucker - presenter there. So anybody out there that wants to do any-
• Aaron Neville - performing "Amazing Grace" thing that we can help—with the way America is
• Marcia Gay Harden - presenter set up to help the poor, the black people, the less
• Richard Fairbank, CEO of Capital One, sponsor of the well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross
concert, speaking. is doing everything they can. We already realize a
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia A Concert for Hurricane Relief
lot of people that could help are at war right now, appeared in a skit spoofing the incident during that
fighting another way—and they’ve given them per- episode.
mission to go down and shoot us!
Mike Myers, whom West was paired with to present, Auction
spoke next and continued as normal by reading the A Gibson guitar autographed by the performers and pre-
script. Once it was West’s turn to speak again, he said, senters was auctioned off to raise additional funds. The
"George Bush doesn’t care about black people". guitar sold for $30,900.
The camera quickly cut away to the next segment
(with Chris Tucker), but West’s comments still reached
all of the U.S.
External links
West returned to NBC by performing on Saturday • A Concert for Hurricane Relief at the Internet Movie
Night Live’s 31st season premiere. He performed "Gold Database
Digger","Touch the Sky", and Heard ’Em Say. Mike Myers • American Red Cross press release
• MSNBC article
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A_Concert_for_Hurricane_Relief&oldid=454728316"
Categories:
• Hurricane Katrina relief benefit concerts
• NBC network shows
• American telethons
• Criticism of journalism
• Kanye West
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