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My name is Annie Hundley and I'm the editor here at valleynews.com. My blog will range from what's up with the site to life for a newbie in LA.

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Idol raises over $30 million for charity

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Contributed by: Annie Hundley / valleynews.com on 4/26/2007

Was it just me, or was last night's two-hour Idol Gives Back show all over the map? By the end of the show, my brain was nearly melted from trying to absorb all the cross promotions, images of poverty and weird music mashed up together. I'm still trying to decide which was weirder - the over-the-top performance by Il Divo, or the "duet" by Celine Dion and Elvis. OK, it was Celine and Elvis. That was really friggin' weird.

But there was also a lot to like about the charity show - not the least of which is the massive amount of money the most popular show in America managed to raise. With Tuesday night's voting they had hoped to raise $5 million by getting 50 million votes. Well they surpassed that cap, getting 70 million votes. But in addition to the $5 million, the show managed to raise another $25 million with a telethon approach to last night's results show.

The highlight of the show, for me, was Josh Groban's performance of You Raise Me Up with the African Children's Choir. The singing was awesome, and watching the children sing with their luminous smiles and missing front teeth was so touching.

Kelly Clarkson gave a great performance as well, singing Up to the Mountain. Annie Lenox and Rascal Flats were great too. The show played a video of Carrie Underwood singing a beautiful song to children in Africa.

The lighter moments included Ben Stiller threatening to sing (badly) until the show raised $200 billion and Jack Black singing Seal's A Kiss From a Rose, which got terrible reviews from the judges but two thumbs up from Seal himself.

Ellen DeGeneres did a fantastic job of hosting the entertainment portion of the show at Disney Hall. She announced toward the end that she was donating $100,000 of her own money to the causes.

But there was also lots of heartbreaking moments in the show. I admit, I cried several times. There was a difficult scene where Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell went to visit a woman dying of AIDS in her home. You could tell Simon was about to be sick after seeing the conditions she was living in. The rushed her out and off to a hospital, but the woman died two days later. I really felt the sense of helplessness you could see in their faces. The two also met with a young boy and girl whose parents had died. The two were living all on their own in a slum - feeding themselves, getting themselves to school. You could see the emotional toll this life was taking on them in their eyes.

Idol wisely chose to also highlight the problems that exist in this country as well. Paula Abdul visited a Boys and Girls Club in Los Angeles and met excited kids who said they want to be performers and the president of the United States. One little girl really lit up when Paula said when she was young her mom had to work a lot, so she put her energy into dance. The girl said she loved to dance, but it's hard because her mom works three jobs and they have a hard time paying the bills. She started crying, and so did I. If people think children aren't affected by poverty or think financial stress is reserved for the parents, I hope they learned something from that girl.

Another American story Idol highlighted was the problem of illiteracy in Appalachia. They focused on one family, where the mom admitted she has a hard time reading. Her children go to an after school program that focuses on literacy and she spoke of how proud she was the day her daughter came home able to read her first book.

After two hours of charity, I had a hard time believing they were going to cut someone from the top six. Just didn't seem right to talk about helping people out and then close the show by destroying someone's dreams. And I was right! At the last moment, Ryan gave a reprieve and said they weren't cutting anyone. Wise choice. But the charity won't last long. Next week the two contestants with the lowest votes combined from this week and next week will be sent home.

I have to offer major kudos to everyone behind Idol Gives Back. It is so refreshing to see the issues of poverty and inequality brought to mainstream television. Congratulations to Idol for using your might for good. I hope this becomes an annual tradition.

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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments

Submitted By: Annie Hundley

posted on 5/2/2007 @ 10:29:25 AM

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I read that Simon personally gave an amount in the "high six figures."

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Submitted By: Robin Nolet

posted on 4/29/2007 @ 10:21:52 PM

Rated Blog Entry

Great review of the evening Annie-I agree on Celine and Elvis, weird! When it came down to Jordin facing the bottom two I thought it was obvious they were up to something. If we could know the actual count, I imagine we'd find she was closer to the top...but the trick made for some not-so-real suspense. I confess, I flipped channels after a while. I could only take so much-of everything! Back to business next week! (Anybody find out how much Simon gave?? Just curious.) http://denver.yourhub.com/Parker/Blogs/Arts-Entertainment/Music/Blog~299382.aspx

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Annie Hundley

Woodland Hills , CALIFORNIA

Annie Hundley has posted 65 blog entries and 19 comments since joining on 7/24/2006. Annie Hundley's average blog rating is 4.87.

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