War Child | Newsroom

Entertainment and online communities show unprecedented support for War Child Presents Heroes

TORONTO, March 12 - War Child’s new benefit album, Heroes, has debuted at # 8 on Nielsen SoundScan’s Top 100 Selling Albums in Canada this week, making it War Child’s biggest debut in the 10 year history of the charity. The album has also debuted at #3 on the Digital Album Chart.

War Child Presents Heroes is the third album the charity has released. Previous compilations have included contributions from Paul McCartney, Radiohead, City and Colour and Our Lady Peace amongst others. This time around, War Child asked some of the biggest legends in music history to select a classic track from their own songwriting canon and nominate an artist from the next generation to create a modern reworking of that song.
The result is an album of 16 exclusive cover versions, with all proceeds from sales of the album going to support the charity.

“Heroes is dedicated to the support of the real heroes – children who live with the brutal effects of war,” said
War Child CEO, Lisa Zbitnew. “We are humbled by the amount of support this record has received, starting with the artists themselves. Without the backing of our retail and media partners, the success of this album would not have broken through like it has.”

The album has garnered a stunning reaction in the press, including a four star review in Rolling Stone Magazine. Heroes has been featured in nearly every major newspaper and music publication in North America and this level of interest was equally evident online.

“Social media has played an important role with this release,” said James Topham, War Child’s Marketing Director. “For example, we are running what may be the first ever album campaign on the microblogging site, Twitter. Overall we’ve seen a 55% increase in our immediate network, a spike in donations and hundreds of blog and Twitter posts about the Heroes album and the charity.”

For more information about the Heroes album, please visit www.warchildheroes.com

War Child is an award-winning charity that provides opportunities and long term solutions for war-affected children, focusing on education, strengthening children’s rights, reducing poverty and fostering self-reliance. War Child works in partnership with local people and organizations to build sustainable programming that empowers children and their communities.  War Child Canada currently provides active support to communities in Afghanistan, Sudan (Darfur), Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka and Georgia. Working closely with the music industry, War Child provides awareness, support and action for children’s rights everywhere.  www.warchild.ca

For further information, please contact:
Fiona Hack
War Child Canada
(416) 971-7474       1-866-WAR-CHILD (927-2445)
fiona@warchild.ca

For Quebec press enquiries, please contact:
Junior Bombardier
Musicor
Bureau (514) 849-6206 x 25310   Blackberry (514) 941-3794
junior.bombardier@musicor.quebecor.com

This entry was posted on March 12, 2009 @ 05:34 AM and is filed under Releases. Both comments and pings are currently closed