I admit it….. I watch American Idol. I like it. So shoot me. I’m banished to the bedroom to watch it….. but I do. My pick for this year’s winner….Melinda Doolittle. She’s a great talent. Anywhooo….. what they did last night is amazing. I didn’t watch the show because I was watching Bill Moyer’s special. (I’m not addicted to it, I just like it). Kudos to them for this most successful fundraising event!!

TV talent show American Idol proved its clout today by raising more than $US30 million ($A35.9 million) for young people in Africa and the United States.

A two-hour show filled with inspirational songs, movie, television and music stars and stories of poverty from Africa and the United States rounded off the two-night special.

“People say you can’t be the generation that ends brutal, stupid poverty, but we can and we will,” Bono, U2’s lead singer and leading spokesman for the ONE Campaign to Make Poverty History, said in a prerecorded segment.

“I have been in front of 70,000 people here in LA and its a pretty amazing feeling. I can’t think of any feeling better except perhaps the feeling that you can save somebody’s life and there is not one person watching this program tonight who cannot save a life,” he said.

The six Idol contestants closed the Idol Gives Back show with American Prayer - the song written by Bono and Dave Stewart some years ago about the AIDS emergency in Africa.

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