By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
Grammy Award-winning R&B singer John Legend will be hosting a charity event called ``Night of Charity for Children" in Seoul, Saturday.
Legend will sing a duet with Korean R&B singer T Yoon Mi-rae at the event, which will be held at the Bamboo House, Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam. Proceeds raised will go to various Korean orphanages and Legend's Show Me Foundation, which funds programs to eradicate poverty in Mbola, Tanzania.
U.S. Ambassador to Korea Kathleen Stephens will be the special guest of honor. There will be a VIP reception for the attendees. Only 75 tickets, priced at 1 million won (approximately $700) each, are available for sale. For information, e-mail
Legend made his debut in the music industry in late 2004, when he released ``Get Lifted.'' He was named Best New Artist, and won Best R&B Album for the song and Best R&B Male Vocal Performance for ``Ordinary People" at the 2006 Grammy Awards. He was also a staunch supporter of U.S. President Barack Obama during the U.S. presidential campaign last year.
Legend is also known for his charitable activities. He founded the Show Me Campaign (www.showmecampaign.org) ``to end poverty through sustainable development at the individual, family, and community levels." The campaign's name comes from Legend's song ``Show Me," which he wrote as a prayer to God asking questions about life and death and about why there is so much suffering in the world.
``As I grew with the song, I realized I shouldn't limit those questions solely to God; I should ask those questions of others and of myself," Legend said on his Web site.
The foundation works with noted economist Jeffrey Sachs and the people of Mbola, Tanzania, ``to implement practical solutions to poverty, including clean water, improved health care and education, higher-yielding agriculture and Internet connectivity." Its projects include providing fertilizer to farmers, bed nets to prevent malaria, free school meals to children and anti-retrovirals for people with AIDS/ HIV.
Legend will hold his first solo concert in Seoul at the Olympic Hall, Olympic Park, Sunday evening.