Yesterday, history was made! The first ever Twitter Christmas Single was launched yesterday afternoon by Brenda Drumm in Dublin's Westin Hotel - and ION were two of the 140 people there.
The proceeds from the sales of 'Winter Song', the #Twitterxmassingle, will go to the Neonatal special care unit in the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street. It's tipped to be our Christmas number one and is already No 1 in the Irish iTunes Chart.
It all began with a single Tweet from @BrendaDrumm two weeks ago. The singers, musicians, technicians, photographers, videographers, hair, make-up, tea makers, venue, accessories were all sourced through Twitter. All of the volunteers who came along to help were signed up on Twitter. The charity to benefit from this initiative was also chosen through Twitter.
Speaking at the launch of #twitterxmassingle, Drumm said: "In just two weeks we have taken a tweet and turned it into a single which is now being tipped to be the Christmas number one. I had no idea that anything like this would happen and it really just shows the power of Twitter and the generosity and goodwill in the hearts of Irish people. This is the real spirit of Christmas at work... I am very excited to be launching a single for charity and I hope that people will download it and love it as much as I do. Whilst this has shown what Twitter can do, ultimately it is all about the babies and their parents in Unit 8, in Holles Street, who I hope will benefit from this."
It was during Brenda's year off due to cancer in 2007 that she began to use social media. She's a fine example of what people can achieve, irrespective of circumstances, once they put their minds to it.
The single is available to download here: itunes.apple.com/ie/album/winter-song-single/id485227782
By the by, the charitable coverage doesn't end there - ION were also at the Movember Gala in Tripod - see all the MOs here!