Making music history to save the children

War Child’s Heroes campaign is using the power of celebrities and great music to drive home its message

 
Today, it is impossible to turn the front pages of the daily papers, or watch the news for a couple of minutes without hearing about the latest war-torn human tragedy – particularly the coverage of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. And these are just the best known ones. There are dozens upon dozens of bloody conflicts occurring in the world today, most of which get little or no media coverage, and no public reaction. Additionally, the victims of these wars go mostly unnoticed by the western public. The fact that the many of the people killed by war are children – a huge percententage, according to War Child, a British NGO – remains more or less unknown. And so it has been War Child’s aim to raise awareness of this tragedy, garner support from a powerful community and improve the lives of the children hit hardest by war. This is a huge job – nobody could deny that – and so it has taken mammoth campaign efforts to bring about the changes they have delivered. Enter the latest instalment: the Heroes album, a unique collaboration between 15 music legends and their favourite contemporary artists, with each of them covering one of their heroes’ classic singles.