Official music charity single for Haiti

The music video for Simon Cowell's Haiti charity single, featuring Leona Lewis and Mika, has been released.

The cover of REM's Everybody Hurts was made available as a download on Sunday and is expected hit number one.

In the video, footage of the song's vocalists in the recording studio is intercut with images of the aftermath of the devastating earthquake.

The magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti in mid-January, killing more than 200,000 peoplE.


According to the BBC, singers including Rod Stewart, James Blunt, Robbie Williams, Cheryl Cole and Susan Boyle all feature in the five-and-a-half minute promo, which opens with a statement recalling the events of 12 January.


The Helping Haiti single was recorded in Los Angeles and London.

Artists including James Morrison and Alexandra Burke sang their lines at the Sarm Studios in Notting Hill - where the original Band Aid single was recorded in 1984.

The record, which is currently topping the iTunes and Amazon download charts, is also released to shops on Monday.

HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo said: "Helping Haiti's cover of Everybody Hurts should comfortably make number one and will hopefully go on to dominate the charts over the course of the next few weeks.

"We could not only be looking at the biggest single of 2010 but possibly one of the most successful releases of the past ten years."

REM, who recorded the original song in 1992, are waiving royalties to the track, while the Government has said it will not collect VAT on the record.

Proceeds will be split between the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) and the Sun newspaper's Helping Haiti campaign.