Shakira: "I'll Stand by You"
With its message of compassion and unconditional love, this 1994 ballad from the Pretenders has a swaying rhythm and warm lyrical embrace that captured the evening's show of support for the Haitian people. "I'll stand by you/ I'll stand by you/ Won't let nobody hurt you," Shakira sang in her trademark quaver. The tune, written by Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde in collaboration with Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg, is featured on the band's Last of the Independents album and was covered by "American Idol" winner Carrie Underwood in 2007 as a charity fundraiser for "Idol Gives Back." It was also covered by the English pop group Girls Aloud as a charity single in 2004. With her four backup singers swaying to the Roots' thrumming rhythms, the song built to a peak in which Shakira unleashed one of her powerful yodels, the backup singers meeting her challenge and raising their voices in gospel harmony.
Stars flock to telethon to raise money for Haiti quake victims. Hope For Haiti Now: A Global Benefit For Earthquake Relief. Millions of people around the world have tuned in to the "Hope for Haiti Now" two-hour telethon as more than 130 celebrities have come together to raise funds for the devastated Caribbean nation today.
A major earthquake struck southern Haiti on Tuesday, knocking down buildings and power lines and inflicting new misery on the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation. THOUSANDS of people were feared dead today after a major earthquake hit Caribbean island Haiti.
The massive quake - 7.3 on the Richter scale - has destroyed thousands of buildings in the impoverished country.
Dead and injured people lay in the streets after the quake - the strongest to hit the island in 200 years - and thousands of survivors gathered in public places.
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll (born February 2, 1977), known professionally as Shakira (pronounced /ʃəˈkɪərə/, Spanish:[tʃaˈkiɾa] or [ʃaˈkiɾa]), is a Colombian singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer and philanthropist who emerged as a musical prodigy in the music scene of Latin America in the early 1990s. Born and raised in Barranquilla, Colombia, Shakira revealed many of her talents in school as a live performer, demonstrating her vocal ability with rock and roll, Latin and Middle Eastern influences with her own original twist on belly dancing. Shakira is a native Spanish speaker and also speaks fluent English, Portuguese and Italian. Shakira also sings in Classical Arabic.
Hope For Haiti Now - Friday, 22 January 2010
