Brantley Gutierrez/Universal MusicA star-studded surprise concert featuring U2's The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr., who will be joined by Bruce Springsteen and Coldplay's Chris Martin, will take place tonight in New York's Times Square to mark World AIDS Day. Springsteen and Martin will step in for U2 frontman Bono, who has been forced to sit out the event because of injuries he suffered last month in a bike accident in New York's Central Park.
The band will be billed as U2 Minus 1 for the gig. Carrie Underwood and Kanye West also will perform at the concert, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. ET. The show will be streamed live on YouTube and will be broadcast as part of ESPN's Monday Night Countdown.
"This year is a World AIDS Day like no other," said Bono, speaking from Dublin, Ireland. "The world reached a tipping point in the fight against AIDS -- more people were newly added to life-saving treatment than were newly infected with the virus. A lot of people are calling it the beginning of the end of AIDS."
He added, "We wouldn't be at this point without American leadership, people from the left and the right. Today, 13 million people have access to life-saving treatment, up from 300,000 just over ten years ago. Americans don't know the role they've played in this fight. Tonight's event is to inform them and thank them."
The concert is being sponsored in part by (RED), the anti-AIDS organization co-founded by Bono.
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