Live Aid was a benefit concert in 1985 held simultaneously at a stadium in Philadelphia and Wembley Stadium in London. The cause it was raising money for was the “famine in Ethiopia that caused over half a million deaths, making it one of the worst in recent history”. The famine was brought to the developed world’s attention when a broadcast of a young nurse helping in Ethiopia “appeared in the BBC news item that became the catalyst for the Live Aid phenomenon”. A clip of Claire Bertschinger, the young nurse, aired on BBC and “galvanized citizens in Europe and the United States into donating millions of pounds to relief agencies”. Among those viewing the broadcast was rock star Bob Geldof who wrote and recorded the song “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” with his friend Midge Ure to “and donate its proceeds to Ethiopian relief”.  The song “was released on December 3, 1984, and instantly hit number one on the British pop charts”.

The success of this song and other famine-earning reliefs in America led to the organization of Live Aid which “Prince Charles and Princess Diana introduced the Wembley portion of the concert at noon, Greenwich mean time (GMT).” According to the young nurse Claire Bertschinger, “the broadcast and Live Aid's efforts had an almost immediate effect. ‘Within ten days of the film, we started getting planes. Up until then we had a food plane in every six weeks. But suddenly there were ten a day.' The numbers tuning in to the concert via television or radio totaled “about 1.5 billion people in in about one hundred countries”, with “162,000 people” attending the concerts live. Astonishingly, Live aid raised “over $245 million” for relief efforts in Ethiopia.

Among those who played in concert some of the largest crowd-drawing names include:

London (performing at Wembley Stadium): Phil Collins, Queen, David Bowie, Sting, the Who, and Elton John.

Philadelphia: Phil Collins (the only star to perform live at both venues), Madonna, Mick Jagger, Black Sabbath, Run- D.M.C., the Pretenders, and Led Zeppelin.

Works Cited

Balingit, JoAnn. “Live Aid Generates Millions for Famine Relief.” Salem Press Encyclopedia, 2021. EBSCOhost, search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.uvu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=89315313&site=eds-live.

 Dercon Stefan, and Porter Catherine. “Live Aid Revisited : Long-Term Impacts of the 1984 Ethiopian Famine on Children.” Journal of the European Economic Association, vol. 12, no. 4, Aug. 2014, pp. 927–948. EBSCOhost, search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.uvu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.90023401&site=eds-live.

Duffin, Christian. "Life or death decisions that inspired live aid." Nursing Standard, vol. 19, no. 42, 29 June 2005, p. 13. Gale OneFile: Health and Medicine, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A134210605/HRCA?u=utahvalley&sid=bookmark-HRCA&xid=098e0565. Accessed 6 Dec. 2021

Parish, Colin. "'Ordinary people can make a difference': Bob Geldof and Claire Bertschinger, the nurse who inspired the original Live Aid concert in 1984, spoke at the chief nursing officer's conference." Nursing Standard, vol. 20, no. 14-16, 14 Dec. 2005, p. 17. Gale OneFile: Health and Medicine, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A147257865/HRCA?u=utahvalley&sid=ebsco&xid=d4b279c7. Accessed 6 Dec. 2021.