Before he passed away this summer, Michael Jackson was hard at work on a concert series he hoped would spark a new comeback for his career. As part of an agreement with the company helping make that dream a reality, hundreds of hours of rehearsal footage was shot of the King of Pop performing, organizing, and directing behind-the-scenes. This glimpse of what might have been has now been turned into a documentary titled This Is It.

With the flick hitting theaters this weekend, early reviews have bordered on the positive. Most have praised the work for pulling back the curtain on Jackson and showing a human side to the performer. “We see a talented singer-dancer fine-tuning an extravaganza, and in so doing we are reminded that, behind all the tabloid craziness and larger-than-life eccentricities, there was still an artist and a person,” said MSNBC’s Alonso Duralde.

No surprise to us, Jackson was also planning on incorporating some environmental themes into the concerts. In particular, for the song “Heal The World”, there’s a filmed sequence that was to play in the background showing the destruction of the Rainforests. We’ve seen such imagery before in Jackson’s “Earth Song” video, — but it appears that he was extending that theme to “Heal” as well. Last week, famed primatologist Jane Goodall said Jackson was inspired to write the song because of the plight of chimpanzees. From the article,

“He wrote what he told me he thought was his most powerful song ever, but it didn’t end up for animals,” Jane Goodall said in a CNN interview Thursday night. “I said to him, ‘You know, Michael, if you want to help, you could do a concert and give us a percentage. Or much better, write a song,’ ” she said. Jackson asked her for tapes of animals in distress because “he wanted to be angry and cry” as he wrote the song, which became “Heal the World,” she said. The original CD cover notes credited Goodall for inspiring the song, she said. But, she added, the Jane Goodall Institute never saw any money from the song.

Considering that Jackson was extremely generous with donations throughout his career, it’s rather odd that Goodall’s foundation never saw any. Perhaps Michael thought he could make more of a difference in other ways.

Click here to check out showtimes for This Is It.

MSN is sourcing an “official who could not be named because he was not authorized to speak on the matter.”

The 51-year-old celebrity was joined by her four kids including the Malawian-born Mercy, 3, and David, 4.

The official said Madonna would take part in a groundbreaking ceremony for the school on Monday and will meet with President Bingu wa Mutharika and visit some of the orphanages her charity supports.

Madonna founded Raising Malawi in 2006, a charity that helps to feed, educate and provide medical care for some of Malawi’s orphans.

According to MSN, “The school she is building for poor girls is on the outskirts of the capital and is similar to the one built by talk show host Oprah Winfrey in South Africa.”

Photo: PR Photos

If the environmental movement has been looking for an 80s “We are the World”-type anthem; this celebrity-fueled remake of the classic “Beds are Burning” song is a fine candidate. Over 60 international music stars and celebrities including Duran Duran, Mark Ronson, Jamie Cullum, Melanie Laurent, Marion Cotillard, Milla Jovovich, Fergie, Lilly Allen, Bob Geldof, Youssou N’Dour, Yannick Noah and many more took part in the recording. The effort is all part of The Global Humanitarian Forum’s ‘Tck Tck Tck; Time for Climate Justice’ campaign — which seeks to demand climate justice at the UN’s Copenhagen Climate Change Summit in December.

The song is available as a free download — with the intention that every person who grabs the file is signing a first-ever global musical petition; adding their names to demand world leaders reach a fair, binding and global deal at the UN Climate Change Summit. So far, over one million people have joined the campaign. Check out the video below and then leave us some comments to tell us what you think!

“Let’s say you’re a vegan or if you choose to eat raw food. Well, that makes you a little more conscious about what you’re putting in your body, therefore, raising your consciousness, if you will. And the same thing goes for being conscious about thoughts, your own thoughts, and what you’re telling yourself, how you’re living your life, how you’re creating a life experience for yourself. That is definitely going to bring in how the world shows up for you, and how you can see the world improve in certain areas, or how you could inspire certain people to improve their work or outreach and share a little more of life’s resources. There’s really no limit as to how far you can go, and hopefully, the concert we do in San Diego will continue to speak that message.”

– Jason Mraz in a new interview with the HuffingtonPost. His last tour stop in San Diego will benefit the San Diego Youth Services, VH1 Save The Music, and the Surfrider foundation — among many other local charities.

Who doesn’t love their week to start off with a little Duran Duran news? I personally start everyday with their 1982 hit Rio.

According to AFP, the “Fab Five” have agreed to join more than 55 world celebrities in recording a song to draw attention to the global warming crisis. It’s all part of a mass media campaign on the threats of climate change organized by the Geneva-based Global Humanitarian Forum, headed by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan. Titled, “Beds’r Burnin”, the song is a remake of the 80s hit with a similar name by the Australian group Midnight Oil.

In a sea of God-awful environmental songs (the most recent exception being one from They Might Be Giants), we’re psyched that this campaign is taking the easy way out with a song that’s already certified classic. It’s got the kind of chorus that’s catchy and inspires a wave of the lighter (or cellphone) into the air.

According to AFP, some of the other celebrities involved include French ‘Piaf’ actress Marion Cotillard, Senegalese star Youssou N’dour, Irish singer/composer Bob Geldorf, Chinese singer Khalil Fong, and even a Nobel peace laureate, South African archbishop Desmond Tutu. Heavy Metal band Scorpions are also on board.

The song will be available as a free download October 1st — after a public launch in Paris. Let’s hope it doesn’t suck. Check out the original eco-themed Midnight Oil below:

There aren’t many environmentally-themed songs that you actually want to listen to. Sheryl Crow’s take was decent, Neil Young’s was described as “hideous”, Miley Cyrus had a hit with the tween scene, and Madonna’s was a train-wreck of lyrics and electronica. Now comes the “Electric Car” song/video from They Might Be Giants — and it’s catchy in a way those new Toyota Prius commercials are catchy. In fact, it’s got a great “Hey kids, let’s all sing along” groove to it a la Jack Johnson.

And actually, the whole kids angle in spot on. As Autobloggreen reports, the quirky band is releasing the new album Here Comes Science geared towards children to teach about things like the periodic table, photosynthesis and solid liquid gas. Needless to say, this electric car song rocks — and you’ll be humming it for a bit, even if you don’t have kids in the background screaming the refrain over and over and over…

Have a look below!

Third Eye Blind is taking to their website to reach out to illegal downloaders.

Frontman Stephen Jenkins recently posted this plea after learning their new album was illegally released online:

“Wow! I leave the country and my album ends up leaking. I was in Jakarta performing for the fine citizens of Indonesia after their devastating terrorist attack—I can’t speak more highly of the country. I am asking for all those downloaders who illegally downloaded our new album, please donate some money to your local charity.”

Two charities they recommend are Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and KickStart.

Jenkins says: “The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is an international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization. Their mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world’s oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species.”

Third Eye Blind also chooses to support KickStart “because they create the tools to end poverty by putting water that was once inaccessible into people’s hands.”

So if you downloaded that album illegally, be a pal and go donate some moola to one of those charities. Even a buck or two can really help!

via: looktothestars.org.

U2 is currently in the midst of their 360 Tour — and the band’s custom-built set giving fans an unobtrusive view of the rockers has been critiqued for its lavish cost. Called the “claw”, the three steel structures cost an estimated $32 million each; something many believe goes against the group’s humanitarian platform. Even Talking Heads frontman David Byrne was not impressed. Writing on his blog, he said, “$40 million to build the stage and, having done the math, we estimate 200 semi trucks crisscrossing Europe for the duration. It could be professional envy speaking here, but it sure looks like, well, overkill, and just a wee bit out of balance given all the starving people in Africa and all.”

In response, U2’s The Edge said: “We’re spending the money on our fans, I don’t think there’s a better thing you could spend it on.” Um, really? Nothing?

“I think anybody that’s touring is going to have a carbon footprint,” he added. “I think it’s probably unfair to single out rock ‘n’ roll. There’s many other things that are in the same category but as it happens we have a programme to offset whatever carbon footprint we have.”

Alright, so at very least U2 is offsetting their tour — something that should be an option of last resort when “greening” an event. Regarding the trucking option, it appears that they looked into it — but just couldn’t find any greener options. “I think that’s probably about as realistic as you can be right now,” continued The Edge “We’d love to have some alternative to big trucks bringing the stuff around but there just isn’t one.”

via BBC

Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers recently teamed up to record Send It On — an eco pop song that is part of Disney’s “Friends for Change: Project Green” initiative.

The Project Green campaign encourages kids to think about the planet and take action to help lower their carbon footprint. So far more than 350,000 kids have taken the green pledge to recycle, reuse, unplug, bicycle etc.

100% of the proceeds from iTunes’ sales (it’s currently number 5 on the iTunes chart) will benefit environmental causes through its Worldwide Conservation Fund.

While I’m jazzed as hell to see young hollywood getting involved with the green scene, it all just seems so damn precious! Watch the video below and tell us what YOU think? Effective activism or just another greenwashing stunt? Chime in and share your thoughts!

A host of star musicians is set to gather and record a remake of Michael Jackson’s Will You Be There for charity. The song was released as a single in 1993 and also appeared on the soundtrack to the movie Free Willy.

Musicians expected to participate include Whitney Houston, John Mayer, Lionel Richie, Usher, Dionne Warwick, Wyclef Jean, Jermaine Jackson, Larry King’s wife Shawn King and possibly Jennifer Hudson. Proceeds from the song are going to be split between the Larry King Cardiac Foundation and an unspecified charity close to Jackson.

Not surprisingly, Jackson was very generous with his money throughout his career — and we can expect more charity events like this one to take place in remembrance. The big one to watch is the planned tribute concert in Vienna, something Jermaine Jackson predicts could attract an audience of over 1 billion people through television alone. An event of that magnitude could raise a massive amount of cash for charity organizations, something we would love to see happen in honor of the King of Pop. Stay tuned — and check out Jackson’s video for Will You Be There after the jump below.