Alicia Keys has successfully raised $1million for her AIDS charity Keep A Child Alive, thanks to the "digital deaths" of her celebrity friends.

The singer inspired stars including Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake and Usher to stop updating their social networking sites including Twitter and Facebook as part of the Digital Life Sacrifice campaign.

Fans and followers of the famous stars were encouraged to donate money to the charity to 'bring them back to life'.

A generous sum of $500,000 was donated by one person alone, Brooklyn-born billionaire Stewart Rahr, who learned that the campaign was short of meeting its target.

The celebrities are now tweeting their thanks, with Alicia Keys saying: "Big Shout to YOU!! ALL THE ARTISTS involved!!! And STEWIE RAH!!! Together we raised $1M to fight AIDS and SAVE REAL LIVES!!!!!!".