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Posts
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The Communards “For a Friend”
A pioneer of queer synth-pop music, Jimmy Sommerville and Bronski Beat released the seminal album Age of Consent in 1984, on which Sommerville sang openly about gay love and sex. By the late ‘90s he’d left Bronski Beat to form The Communards with classical musician Richard Coles. Their elegiac “For a Friend,” off of the 1988 album Red, is nothing short of heart rending. In his unmistakable falsetto Sommerville pines, “As I watch the sun go down, watching the world fade away / All the memories of you come rushing back to me / As I watch the sun go down, watching the world fade away / All I want to do Id kiss you once goodbye, goodbye.”
Annie Lennox “Sing”
British soul singer Annie Lennox contributed a stunning rendition of “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye” on 1990’s Red Hot + Blue album, but her activism around HIV didn’t end there. The Eurythmics front woman, a UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador, released “Sing” off of her fourth solo album, Songs of Mass Destruction, in 2007. The track featured 23 prominent female artists, including Madonna, Fergie, P!nk, Gladys Knight, k.d. lang, and Faith Hill. And proceeds from the single went to raise awareness and treatment for women and children with HIV. The song also became the rallying cry for Lennox’s Sing Campaign, her ongoing effort to continually shine a light on the disease.
Dionne Warwick, Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder “That’s what Friends are For”
Dionne Warwick and Friends (John, Knight and Wonder) teamed up to release “That’s what Friends are For” as a charity single in 1985 for the American Foundation for AIDS research. The Warwick and Friends release, originally written by Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager three years earlier for a Rod Stewart album, raised over $3 million for the foundation and landed at #1 for four weeks on The Billboard Hot 100. The song spawned a 1990 benefit concert, That’s What Friends Are For: Arista Records 15th Anniversary Concert. That benefit, which featured Hall and Oates, Patti Smith, Carly Simon and Whitney Houston, raised over $2.5 million for various AIDS organizations.
Janet Jackson “Together Again”
Superstar Janet Jackson was moved to writhe 1997’s “Together Again” after losing a friend to AIDS-related complications. While the song began as an elegy for a friend, she extrapolated the sentiment out to all those lost to the epidemic, moved in part by mail from fans sharing their stories of loss and resilience in the face of HIV/AIDS
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This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by
Ghost_Child.
Madonna “In This Life”
Off of 1992’s controversial Erotica album, Madonna’s “In This Life” is a love letter to her friend and one-time roommate Martin Burgoyne, who died at 23 from complications from AIDS. Burgoyne had been a bartender at Studio 54 during Madonna’s first tour.
“Gone before he had his time. It came without a warning. Didn’t want his friends to see him cry. He knew the day was dawning. And I didn’t have a chance to say goodbye,” Madonna sings about her friend.
TLC “Waterfalls”
All-female hip-hop trio TLC tackled the theme of AIDS in their 1995 mega-hit “Waterfalls.” The song’s second verse addresses infidelity and unprotected sex, depicting a man who cheats on the woman who loves him only to contract HIV/AIDS.
“One day he goes and takes a glimpse in the mirror. But he doesn’t recognize his own face. His health is fading and he doesn’t know why. Three letters took him to his final resting place.”
were 2 very good documentaries on earlier about the history of gigs in uk and then one about irish music@ U2 undertones sinead etc. I was hoovering etc but it was on bbc 4 so will be on i player
1 member liked this post.
You hoover
you really are teasing me now I love a nice clean home when can I move in 
Psssst! Where are the songs?? You forgot to copy and paste them along with the rest of the article you got from advocate.com
I am an advocate for dot com well spotted
Secret how can you not see the songs has my charm blinded you
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This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by
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