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Mary J. Blige, Justin Timberlake, Madonna and Wyclef Jean are among those who bring real artistic achievement to the earthquake relief fundraiser.

By Ann Powers, Los Angeles Times Pop Music Critic

Programs like Friday's "Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief" do not exist to further musical careers, introduce new material or birth fruitful collaborations. Tragedies like last week's seismic disaster necessitate such urgent media efforts, and fundraising is their primary objective. Important information may also be transmitted; perhaps someone's consciousness will be raised. The pleasure, surprise or release that art can offer is merely added value.

That said, several of the major names who came on board for Haiti went beyond the expected heartstring tugs. Many delivered on precisely that front: The evening was full of big ballads and classic laments, from the opening "Prelude To a Kiss" by Alicia Keys to Jennifer Hudson's "Let It Be" and Stevie Wonder's "Bridge Over Troubled Water."

Others did something different. They made song choices or delivered performances that subtly enhanced our understanding of incomprehensible events.

U2, Jay-Z and producer Swizz Beatz have recorded a song together to raise money for victims of the Haiti earthquake.

BBC News

U2's guitarist The Edge told Irish radio station 2FM the band "wrote a song, finished and recorded" last week after being contacted about the idea.

The Edge, Bono and Jay-Z, along with Rihanna, are due to appear in London for "a group performance" as part of Friday's Hope For Haiti telethon.

George Clooney's two-hour benefit show will be aired on MTV in the UK.

The Edge told 2FM DJ Dave Fanning over the weekend: "Bono got a call from a producer, Swizz. He and Jay-Z wanted to do something for Haiti.

Stars including Bono, Justin Timberlake and Alicia Keys will perform in the Hope For Haiti TV fundraising event, organiser George Clooney has announced.

BBC News

The actor said more than 40 celebrities were expected to attend the Hope For Haiti event on 22 January.

The aim of the telethon, he added, was "to show the people of Haiti that the whole world is paying attention".

Clooney and Haitian-born singer Wyclef Jean will host the benefit, to be shown on more than a dozen US TV networks.

Other performers will include Sting and Christina Aguilera.

Clooney attended the Golden Globe awards on Sunday, where he was nominated for best actor for his film Up In The Air.

Hot Press

Grafton Street came to a standstill late this afternoon when a group of superstar buskers gathered to give a unique performance.

Bono, Glen Hansard, Damien Rice and Mundy made up the remarkable group, who joined other volunteers who were busking to raise money for the Simon Community. Hot Press caught them performing three songs, before the set finished, prompting a huge and sustained round of applause from astounded passers-by.

"That was incredible," one stunned onlooker told Hot Press. "I was out innocently doing my shopping when I saw a crowd gathered. I couldn't believe my eyes when I had a closer look - you might expect to see someone like Mundy doing something like this for charity, but there were three huge stars there, giving it loads. It really added to the Christmas eve atmosphere. The only problem is I had one more present to get but the shop is closed now!"

Circus entrepreneur and "first clown in space" Guy Laliberte has hosted a global artistic performance from the International Space Station (ISS).

BBC

Mr Laliberte introduced artists and speakers from 14 countries in a two-hour show aimed at drawing attention to global water shortages.

Al Gore, Bono and Salma Hayek were among those involved.

Mr Laliberte, founder of the Cirque du Soleil theatre company, is near the end of a 10-day tourist visit to the ISS.

The show, called Moving Stars and Earth for Water, was described by its organisers as a Poetic Social Mission.

It began at midnight GMT, with a welcome from Mr Laliberte onboard the ISS.

We have collected some video from "An Evening With Gavin Friday and Friends" at New York City's Carnegie Hall on October 4, 2009. Amongst the guests were all four members of U2, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Antony, Elizabeth Ashley, Andrea Corr, Flo & Eddie, Joel Grey, Bill Frisell, Guggi, Scarlett Johansson, Courtney Love, Lydia Lunch, Patrick McCabe, Maria Mckee, Shane MacGowan, Eric Mingus, JG Thirlwell, Martha Wainwright, Rufus Wainwright, Chloe Webb, and other special guests.

Also check out some pictures we've found from the show.

David Fricke, Rolling Stone

"We had all kinds of grand ideas," Bono said onstage at Carnegie Hall, early in an October 4th concert honoring Irish singer-songwriter-provocateur Gavin Friday. Bono was recalling his teenage years in Dublin, running through the streets with Friday and the future members of their bands, U2 and Friday's tribal punk surrealists the Virgin Prunes. "We invented these great events in our imagination," Bono went on, noting that Friday, at one point actually had the temerity to say, "Why don't we all play Carnegie Hall?"

They had to wait awhile, until Friday's 50th birthday (officially on October 8th), but it was worth it. Dubbed "An Evening With Gavin Friday and Friends" and curated with eclectic bravura by Hal Willner, the show -- presented by the charitable foundation (RED), with proceeds going to fight AIDS in Africa -- was a riotous three-hour party, with a to-hell-with-genre rollcall of the many friends Friday has made in his art-rock pop-art film-score and noir-theater travels.

By Keith Upchurch, The Herald-Sun

DURHAM -- Natalie Baker flew 36 hours from her home in Melbourne, Australia, to Durham to indulge her two loves: the music of Irish rock band U2 and being with her U2 fan community.

She was one of dozens of ultra-devoted fans at this weekend's conference at N.C. Central University to explore the music, work and influence of U2.

"Their music inspires me to make a difference,'' she said Saturday morning with an enthusiasm that showed no hint of the exhausting plane trip from the previous day. "It inspires me to make a difference, even a small difference, and encourages me to look at the world in a different way.''

Baker said she's attended a dozen U2 concerts all over the world in the past 20 years, and planned to be at Saturday night's U2 concert at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh.

by Daniel Kreps, Rolling Stone

All four members of U2, Scarlett Johansson, Courtney Love, Antony, Martha and Rufus Wainwright and many more will take the stage at a (RED)NIGHTS concert at New York's Carnegie Hall on October 4th. "Hal Willner Presents: An Evening with Gavin Friday and Friends" will also feature performances from the Turtles' Flo & Eddie, the Pogues' Shane McGowan, Laurie Anderson. punk icon Lydia Lunch and, as the name of the event denotes, Gavin Friday and members of his goth band, the Virgin Prunes.

Part of the proceeds from the tickets, which go on sale tomorrow, September 16th, will go toward the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The evening's presenter Hal Willner, a frequent Friday collaborator, has also produced albums by Lou Reed, Marianne Faithful and the soundtrack for the film Million Dollar Hotel, based on a story by Bono.

Daniel Kreps, Rolling Stone

Many superfans compare listening to their favorite band to a religious experience. A church in Florida is taking that sentiment to the next level by introducing its congregation to a Sunday service that features the music and lyrics of Bono and Co., reports Twenty Four Bit. The rockin' First United Methodist Church of Pensacola, Florida will host the U2charist -- a play on the word Eucharist -- which includes U2's "One," "With or Without You" and the service-opening prayer of "Beautiful Day."

The debut U2charist in Pensacola took place August 23rd at First Methodist. The U.S. Episcopal Church first developed the U2charist in 2003, and the service was first conducted in Baltimore, Maryland, in April 2004. The celebration of U2's music has since since spread worldwide, arriving in Pensacola last weekend. "It's definitely something different," First United's Rev. Geoffrey Lentz told the Pensacola News Journal. "But U2's music is so deeply spiritual that I think the corporate worship setting is the perfect place for it. It's exciting for the oldest Protestant church in Pensacola to have a cutting edge worship service." Lentz added that the U2charist appeals to a younger audience, and an average of 200 people attend the Sunday service.