Ivor Novello winner Passenger gives100% of album royalties to UNICEF campaign

Award-winning UK singer-songwriter Passenger (real name Michael Rosenberg) is to donate 100% of the profits from a brand new album that comes out on 20 April to a UNICEF campaign aiming to reduce Liberia’s child mortality rates.

Signed to Sony/ATV Music Publishing for the world outside Australia, Passenger will release the album Whispers II via his own label Black Crow Records.

He has agreed for all the profits from the release to be made available to the UNICEF initiative over the next five years. It aims to cut down child mortality rates in the country recently devastated by the Ebola crisis.

Even before the Ebola tragedy, the West African state had one of the world’s highest child mortality rates. Almost 50% of its children were malnourished and 10,000 died each year as a result.

Passenger says: “Money raised from these sales will go directly towards food and supplements to help bring severely malnourished kids back to health, facility upgrades and maintenance, education and training for health workers in the region.” Whispers II can be pre-ordered here.

The artist bowled over the industry in 2012 with Let Her Go, his self-penned single, which gradually became a sensation worldwide.

It reached No.1 in several countries, including Australia, Germany and Italy, and went to No.2 in the UK, where it sold 1.4 million digital downloads. Also, it was the UK’s fourth biggest single in 2013. It peaked at No.5 on the US’ Billboard Hot 100 chart with 4 million-plus download sales to date.

Moreover, Passenger picked up an Ivor Novello Award for Let Her Go in 2014. It was the PRS for Music’s Most Performed Work. He then received a nomination for the same song at the BRIT Awards.

[Juliana Koranteng]