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Mother of all music fundraisers
By Pocholo Concepcion
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 17:47:00 10/12/2009
MANILA, Philippines - The mother of all music fundraisers for victims of Tropical Storm Ondoy just might be the “Katy Perry Rocks for Relief” concert, which will also feature major rock, pop and dance acts on Nov. 14 at the SM Mall of Asia open grounds in Pasay City.
Aside from Perry — an American singer-songwriter who started with gospel and country music before hitting the charts with the pop single “I Kissed a Girl” — other current and hot artists who have committed to perform are Arnel Pineda and Neal Schon, lead vocalist and guitarist-composer, respectively, of the band Journey, and JabbaWockeeZ, the all-male hip hop dance crew from California, four of whom are Fil-Americans.
Another US-based artist, Nicole Scherzinger — lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls and whose father is Filipino — is reportedly fixing her schedule so she can be part of the concert.
All of these artists, with the exception of Perry, have performed recently in Manila and were very much concerned about the plight of flood victims.
They were contacted by Rhiza Pascua, whose US-based Music Management International is teaming up with All Youth Channels (the company that owns MTV Philippines) to mount the fundraiser.
“Although we want to make the concert as big as possible, the logistical expense is quite daunting,” says Francis Lumen of AYC. “One possible problem is the plane fare, although we hope to get discounts from PAL. We want to keep production costs down so we can donate a bigger amount from ticket sales and sponsorship.”
This early, Lumen has started the ball rolling for cash donations. U92, the new FM radio station he’s operating, has postponed its media launch and is setting aside P1 million from its funds to give to the flood victims. The concert’s official beneficiary is the Philippine National Red Cross, which will supervise how the donations will be used.
Smart Communications and Unilever are coming in as sponsors, according to Lumen.
MTV Europe and MTV USA are also sending in donations, Lumen adds. For foreign donors, Lumen is encouraging cash donations instead of clothes or other items because there is talk that packages encounter problems at the Bureau of Customs.
“MTV Europe asked me how else they can help,” adds Lumen. “I told them, if they can bring in somebody like Sting, that would be great … I need one more big name. In the meantime our US contact, Rhiza, is still talking to other artists. This concert is still a work in progress.”
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