Many people frown upon what they believe to be unacceptable and undignified behaviour by those people whom we look upon as celebrities. So often you will see a drunken Jordan or Paris Hilton staggering into the back of a limousine at 3 o’clock in the morning. You will watch the Brads and Jennifer’s of the celebrity world divorce and find new lovers. Kate Moss is let off with an illegal drug habit. The film stars with anorexia and the singers who flaunt their rock and role lifestyle. However we let these people influence our lives greatly, from fashion and the way we look to picking the names of our children. Recently Arnold Schwarzenegger became the governor of California , which raises the interesting question to how far can celebrities interest and further influence the public in serious political issues as opposed to the more trivial and inferior matters for which we hold them in such high esteem. The answer to this question is Live 8 .

On 2 nd July 2005 the largest concert ever known took place, this concert unified the world. 150 bands and 1250 music artists played from around the world at 10 different venues including London and Philadelphia . However all this music making was actually for a very serious and heartbreaking cause, the extreme poverty in countries such as Africa . Sir Bob Geldoff set up live 8 to bring awareness to the cause and to ask for names but not money. The aims of the concert were to achieve more and better aid for those who need it, they wanted the debt of poorer countries to be dropped and they also wanted trade justice to be put in place. They took these three requests and 30 million names from around the world to those who could make a difference. The G8.

The leaders of the G8 have now taken steps to increase aid and cancel debt for some of those poorer countries, success on a global scale.

An estimated 3 billion people watched the Live 8 concert that day and this was not necessarily due to their concern to help the “make poverty history” campaign but it was because the celebrities involved helped bring awareness to those whom it would normally pass by. Their idols were seen to take the stage and make a stand influencing the public and allowing them to help for the greater good. So indeed there are badly behaved celebs around, but we make them what they are and without them those 3 billion people would not have watched the live 8 concert and those 30 million names, which have made such a difference, would not have been signed.