Some of contemporary Christian music's top artists will sing the songs of U2 on In the Name of Love: Artists United for Africa, an album benefiting the African AIDS crisis. The Jan. 27 release on Sparrow Records will include covers of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" by Pillar, "Pride (In the Name of Love)" by Delirious? and "Love Is Blindness" by Sixpence None the Richer.

The project grew out of a meeting U2 frontman Bono had with several Christian musicians in Nashville last year. "It started with Bono making a statement about the Christian community needing to step up to the plate and do something about Africa," says Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay, which remakes "All I Want Is You." "The best way for musicians to help is to do what we do best. We'll have the opportunity to do what we do for a more purposeful cause than filling our own pockets."

The album's packaging will contain essays by Bono, President Bush and Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn. Other artists on the disc will include Toby Mac (performing "Mysterious Ways"), Tait ("One"), Audio Adrenaline ("Gloria"), Grits ("With or Without You") and Nichole Nordeman ("Grace").

© USA Today, 2003.

added 01 november 2003