The track was released in April, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Pink Floyd’s first new piece of music since 1994, the song featured vocals from Andriy Khlyvnyuk, the frontman of Ukraine’s rock outfit BoomBox, according to news outlets.
Now the British band have revealed that their charity single has generated GBP 500,000 (EUR 570,000) for humanitarian charities helping those affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Britain’s New Musical Express website reported.
In a statement posted on Facebook on Christmas Eve, Pink Floyd wrote: “Pink Floyd would like to thank everyone who has supported Hey, Hey, Rise Up. The single, recorded on 30th March with Андрій Хливнюк of the Ukrainian band Бумбокс, has so far raised over £450,000 to help alleviate the suffering of the Ukrainian people.”
The statement added: “David Gilmour [bandleader] and Nick Mason [drummer] have made this up to £500,000 which will be distributed to the following humanitarian charities: Hospitallers, The Kharkiv and Przemyśl Project, Vostok SOS, Kyiv Volunteer and Livyj Bereh.”
Hospitallers are a group of paramedics that provide help to Ukrainian soldiers, while The Kharkiv and Przemyśl Project aids the people of Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv and war refugees who reach Poland’s southeastern city of Przemyśl, the PAP news agency reported.
Pink Floyd singer and guitarist David Gilmour, whose daughter-in-law is Ukrainian, has openly supported Ukraine amid the Russian invasion.
Meanwhile, the band’s former leader Roger Waters has “insinuated that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was at least partially at fault for the war’s outbreak,” New Musical Express noted.
Waters also wrote an open letter to Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska, suggesting she persuade her husband to initiate a ceasefire with Russia, according to the NME.
Following Waters’ anti-Ukrainian pronouncements, fans said they would boycott his concerts in the southern Polish city of Kraków in April next year, causing the gigs to be cancelled, the PAP news agency reported.
Wednesday is day 308 of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, New Musical Express