Close Encounters of the MLE Kind

(LOS ANGELES, CA) Two-time GRAMMY® Award winner Melissa Etheridge and three-time nominee Joss Stone announced today that they are releasing an audio version of their show-stopping Janis Joplin tribute exclusively on The iTunes Music Store for a 30-day period beginning on Tuesday, March 15th. The track will be available for $0.99. Proceeds generated from the stunning Joplin medley, which includes the classic tracks “Cry Baby” and “Piece of My Heart,” will benefit the City of Hope and the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation.

“I’ll never forget those two and a half minutes on stage,” said Ms. Etheridge who made her appearance on the 47th Annual GRAMMY Awards just after completing an aggressive course of chemotherapy for breast cancer. “It was the best get well present a girl could have.”

“Singing with Melissa was a dream come true,” said Ms. Stone. “She's an amazing singer, songwriter and without a doubt an amazing person, definitely a woman to look up to.”

“Music always has the extraordinary ability to inspire and to heal, and the Melissa Etheridge/Joss Stone performance in tribute to Janis Joplin is a testament to that remarkable power,” said Recording Academy® President Neil Portnow. “As with our ‘Across The Universe’ track on iTunes — with proceeds benefiting tsunami relief efforts — we are committed to helping those in need with funds from this dynamic track directed toward cancer research, and we are proud to be part of this effort.”

“There's no question that the Melissa/Joss duet was one of the real highlights of this year's GRAMMY Awards show,” said GRAMMY Awards Executive Producer, Ken Ehrlich. “It was emotional, it was exciting, and it was one of those performances that a producer dreams about. That it can also be made available via the Internet to help battle cancer makes it even more memorable, and we are thrilled to participate in this aspect of their performance."

In order to make the iTunes offering possible, not all of the collaboration took place on stage. In fact an extraordinary effort was also made by all the business parties involved including The Recording Academy, Raymond Angry, Kenny Aronoff, Mark Browne, Lester Cohen and Wire Image, The CBS Television Network, John Cossette, Cossette Productions, EMI Music Marketing, EMI Music Publishing, Ken Ehrlich, David Gilmour, The iTunes Music Store, Island Def Jam Music Group, S-Curve Records, Philip Sayce, Sloopy II Music and the family of Bert Berns, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Warner/Chappell Music Publishing.

City of Hope, an innovative biomedical research, treatment and educational institution, is dedicated to the prevention and cure of cancer and other life-threatening diseases, guided by a compassionate patient-centered philosophy, and supported by a national foundation of humanitarian philanthropy.

The mission of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation is to eradicate breast cancer within 10 years. Their goal is to identify the barriers to research and then to create new solutions.