July 13, 1985
- Jul 13, 2023
- 1 min read
On this day in history in 1985 the Live Aid concert raised $127 million for famine relief in Africa.
A Global Concert
The Live Aid concert opened at Wembley Stadium in London by Prince Charles and Princess Diana. It was designed to raise money for famine relief in Africa. It was a 16-hour "superconcert" that took place at various arenas around the world, which were globally linked by satellite. It reached more than 1 billion viewers and 110 nations. After the concert was opened in Wembley it continued at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.
Live Aid's Roots & Legacy
In 1984 Bob Geldof, the singer for the Irish rock group the Boomtown Rats, visited Ethiopia. There he saw firsthand the news reports he'd been reading about: horrific famine was killing hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians and threatening even more. After returning home he gathered British and Irish pop artists to record the single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" that he cowrote. It raised more than $10 million.
With the crisis continuing in Africa Geldof proposed Live Aid, a global charity concert. It was organized in only ten weeks and featured 75 acts. Most of them performed at either Wembley or JFK Stadium. Likely the most famous of the performers was the concert by Queen (video right) who put on an unbelievable 20-minute performance including some of the group's most iconic songs such as "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We Are the Champions."
Not only did the concert raise $127 million for famine relief it generated encouragement, particularly in the Western nations, to make surplus grain available to help the immediate hunger crisis in Africa.
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