BRITs 2015 activity raised £500k for War Child
The BRIT Awards 2015 with MasterCard have revealed that a whopping £500k was raised for the War Child charity across all the activity around this year’s awards show. This impressive grand total is the highest amount of money ever raised for the charity since the Help Album in 1995.
Google Play was this year appointed as official download and audio streaming partner for The BRIT Awards, resulting in a record breaking charitable donation for War Child and The BRIT Trust. Google Play paid for free-to-consumer downloads and streams of the live performances from Ed Sheeran, Paloma Faith, Sam Smith, Royal Blood, George Ezra and Take That from the main awards show, with over £250k raised, smashing previous records. As well having the largest volume of downloads in BRITs history, this was the first time that tracks from the show were made available via an audio streaming service.
BRITs Week, a partnership with the BPI, AEG and London First, hosted a series of special gigs in the lead up to the main show across London, with incredible performances from George Ezra at the Brixton Electric, Royal Blood at KOKO, and The Charlatans at the Brooklyn Bowl, with the proceeds of tickets sold going to War Child. Take That headlined the annual War Child BRIT Awards pre-show at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, marking their most intimate show produced in years.
War Child presented their own series of small gigs during BRITs Week under the banner of Passport Back to the Bars, which saw British acts Duran Duran, The Vaccines, You Me At Six, David Gray, Elbow and Ride (Mark Gardener and Andy Bell acoustic) play intimate shows in both London and Manchester, with tickets obtained via a ballot system.
The money raised will help War Child provide life-changing support to the most vulnerable children whose families, communities and schools have been torn apart by war. They are on the ground working with children whose lives have been devastated by conflicts in areas including Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Central African Republic, Syria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
