Coronavirus is impacting all of our lives. This crisis is the biggest challenge Samaritans has ever faced. Before Coronavirus hit, 20,000 Samaritans volunteers were answering a call for help every six seconds.This could be someone you know, family or friends in urgent need but unable to talk to anyone in the middle of the night. It is more important than ever for Samaritans to be there 24/7, 365 days a year for those who need us. Samaritans' helpline is feeling the pressure. They're likely to experience more people struggling to cope or in crisis and they may have less volunteers to help answer calls for help. Their teams are working hard to ensure that we can still be here 24/7, 365 days a year for those who are in crisis. Your donation to Samaritans Emergency Appeal will help them reach those who are struggling to cope. It will help Samaritans recruit more volunteers and work faster on different ways to be there. Change the life of someone who desperately needs them.

In the words of our founder Max.....

"This group was never about trade in the economic sense. It was always about humanity and it was always about love. And it was also about understanding that music is an *essential* element of our being human. We have every reason to think that communities have been singing, playing, drumming and dancing together for hundreds of thousands of years, with every song and beat binding people together, literally creating and perpetuating harmony across our planet.

In our modern world, and contrary to all our instincts, we have commodified our artistic output and although we have created great art, high and low, in the process, we have also forgotten that music belongs to us all. If you have ever felt like expressing yourself artistically but stopped because you felt that your art was not worthy, the Viral Jukebox is your home. I mean it.

More than once since I created this group people have suggested that I could find a way to monetise it. They are missing the point. The currency here is love. Spend freely. Give freely. And remember, if you sang or played it from your heart, you played it right."

So this Christmas, with the Pandemic rolling on and weird hybrid lockdown in place, we thought it would be great to raise money, together, for our favourite causes, so choose the one closest to your heart (or follow the person who made a song you like and vote for a cause they love!)

Happy Christmas Jukeboxers!