Prince Charles and Princess Diana officially opened Live Aid on July 12, 1985, at Wembley Stadium in London. It is a worldwide rock concert organized to raise money for the relief of famine-stricken Africans. The 16-hour global “superconcert” was linked by satellite to about 1.5 billion viewers in 110 nations. In the same way, the Wembley Stadium was filled with 70,000 people whereas JFK Stadium in Philadelphia was filled with 100,000. The event raised $127 million for famine relief in Africa.
The creator of this event was Bob Geldof. He was the singer from an Irish rock group “Boomtown Rats” who travelled to Ethiopia after hearing news reports of a deadly famine which had killed many Ethiopians and was ongoing. This led to the creation of a single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” which was the combined effort of Britain’s and Ireland’s top artists. The became the best-selling single in Britain to that date and also was able to raise more than $10 million. Likewise, it was also top hit in the US which also inspired the US pop artists to come together and perform “We Are the World”. It also topped the charts and raised $44 million.
While Ethiopia was struggling with the crisis, its neighbour Sudan also faced the same. Hence, Geldof proposed Live Aid, a global charity concert for raising funds. The Live Aid was staged on Saturday 13 July 1985 by the preparation of just 10 weeks.
The concert featured more than 75 acts, counting Queen, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Dire Straits, Madonna, Santana, Run DMC, Sade, Sting, Bryan Adams, The Beach Boys, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, U2, The Who, and Neil Young. However, the most memorable performance of the concert was by Queen, especially frontman Freddie Mercury. They offered memorable 20-minute performance to the crowd, going from “Bohemian Rhapsody” to “We Will Rock You“, and finally finishing with “We Are The Champions“. Likewise, Phil Collins left an impression in Philadelphia after flying from London, where he performed at Wembley earlier in the day.
