Weekend Rewind: Our favourite charity campaign music videos

Comedian Billy T James and musician Dave Dobbyn in the music clip Sailing Away. Photo / NZ On Screen

Opinion

Kiwi celebrities are not shy of backing charity campaigns close to their hearts. Over the years the more musically inclined have often lent their support by creating songs used to champion a number of worthy causes. NZ On Screen's Nicky Harrop revisits some of our more charitable musical moments.

Perhaps inspired by Do They Know it's Christmas and We Are the World, 1986 saw a who's who of local musicians, broadcasters and sportspeople raise their voices in patriotic fervour, supporting the first Kiwi challenge for the America's Cup: "in a boat just called New Zealand". The bid failed, but Sailing Away spent an impressive nine consecutive weeks at number one. The tune - borrowed from Pokarekare Ana - remains both a reminder of simpler times in the America's Cup, and an era of questionable haircuts (we're looking at you, Satellite Spies).

Watch Sailing Away here:

Released in 1992, You Make the Whole World Smile paired the powerhouse combination of celebrities and cute babies in support of Red Nose Day. The stellar lineup featured The Wizard of Christchurch, sports legends Grant Fox, John Kirwan and Jeremy Coney, newsreaders Judy Bailey and Anita McNaught, and singers Hammond Gamble, Tina Cross and Suzanne Lynch.

Watch You Make the Whole World Smile here:

In 2012 Flight of the Conchords recruited a group of Kiwi young'uns to help them write a song for health research charity Cure Kids. The resulting lyrical gold encompassed bowls, bubbles, robbers and a major overhaul of the banking system, before getting straight to the point: "there must be something we can do, to stop these kids from doing spews." A superstar team of Kiwi singers and rappers joined the Conchords in the studio, and the single soon hit the top of the charts.

Watch Feel Inside (and stuff like that) here:

After being diagnosed with breast cancer, TV presenter Helena McAlpine enlisted a chorus of NZ's most recognisable music voices to cover Chris Knox's Not Given Lightly for the NZ Breast Cancer Foundation awareness campaign. McAlpine was determined that mothers, daughters, wives and friends get the message that "the best form of defence against breast cancer is to catch it early." McAlpine passed away in September this year.

Watch Not Given Lightly here:

Not a music video as such, but arguably the mother of all Kiwi campaign songs, Thank You Very Much for Your Kind Donation provided the soundtrack to local telethons for the better part of 35 years. Played whenever the donations board hit a high, the song was often accompanied by an impromptu celebrity conga line, and the odd talking belly-button.

Watch footage from 1981's telethon here:

You can find more Kiwi campaign songs here in NZ On Screen's Spotlight collection.