Friday night, an all-star line up of popular music's finest took to stages in cities across the globe with the common mission of liberating some change from our pockets, all to benefit the displaced survivors of the catastrophic earthquake disaster in Haiti. The message was received loud and clear, as the "Hope For Haiti Now" telethon raked in an estimated $61 million in worldwide donations - an incredible $20 million more than was raised during the post-Katrina telethon "Shelter From the Storm" - to help bring aid and relief to the devastated country. The staggering show of support will hopefully go a long way towards efforts to recover and, hopefully, to rebuild.

As expected, Jay-Z and Bono teamed up with Rihanna and the rest of U2 for a live rendition of "Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)." Although their performance was initially the main draw for the event, it was Justin Timberlake's duet with Matt Morris (singing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah") that ended up stealing the show. Donations are still being accepted, so if you just got paid or if you have been living under a rock for the past week, go cough up a few bucks you probably saved by not buying any albums for the past ten years, and make a difference to some people in need. $61 million may sound like a lot, but it doesn't amount to enough when you're staring down the barrel of a few billion in damages. Times are tough, sure; but recession or not, things could be a whole lot tougher.