MANDELA MARKS 90TH BIRTHDAY WITH LONDON CONCERT
Agence France Presse
June 27 2008
LONDON (AFP) — A star-studded cast of artists were celebrating Nelson
Mandela’s 90th birthday with a giant concert in London on Friday in
support of his global AIDS campaign.
Queen, Amy Winehouse and Annie Lennox were among the musicians
performing at the Hyde Park gig for the former South African
president’s 46664 campaign, which was being broadcast around the world.
Following an opening performance from Jivan Gasparyan, an Armenian
duduk wooden flute master, US actor Will Smith introduced British
rockers Razorlight.
Queen and Paul Rodgers were set to rock the audience later before a
finale of "Free Nelson Mandela" featuring Winehouse and the song’s
writer, Specials keyboard player Jerry Dammers, plus all the artists.
"I’m here to see Nelson Mandela," said Ben Motsumi, 45, a nurse from
Klerksdorp in South Africa, who came to the concert with his wife
and children.
"He’s a hero to me. I’ve got all pictures of him in my house. I’ve
been in Britain for nine years. This is an incredible occasion for
us. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be here," he told AFP.
Mandela was to give a 10-minute speech during the gig.
He made headlines Wednesday by breaking his silence over the
electoral violence in Zimbabwe, describing it as a "tragic failure
of leadership."
Zimbabweans were voting Friday in a presidential poll with President
Robert Mugabe as the only candidate. Some campaigners have called on
Mandela to elaborate on his comments.
Other performers on the concert bill include Simple Minds, Josh Groban,
Joan Baez, Leona Lewis, the Sugababes, Eddy Grant, Jamelia, Zucchero
and the Sudanese "war child" rapper Emmanuel Jal.
A 46664 spokesman told AFP that Mandela was attending the Hyde Park
gig to thank the British people for a concert at London’s Wembley
Stadium in 1988, which called for his release from jail.
Precisely 46,664 tickets — after Mandela’s prison number during his
27-year incarceration for trying to topple South Africa’s apartheid
regime — went on sale for the three-and-a-half-hour concert.
Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton and British actor Stephen Fry are
among the celebrities introducing the artists.
Mandela, who retired from public life nine years ago, is expected to
retreat further from the limelight after his birthday celebrations
and hand over the reins of his 46664 campaign.
The African liberation hero, who turns 90 on July 18, is now in
frail health.
"The world remains beset by so much human suffering, poverty and
deprivation. It is in your hands to make of our world a better one
for all, especially the poor, vulnerable and marginalised," Mandela
said at a fundraising dinner Wednesday.
The bash, attended by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former
US president Bill Clinton, poverty activist Bob Geldof, film stars
and performers from Friday’s concert, raised five million pounds
(10 million dollars, 6.3 million euros).
The 46664 campaign, which has seen four previous multi-artist concerts,
aims to raise awareness of the HIV/AIDS epidemic which is rife in
sub-Saharan Africa.
South Africa is one of the countries worst-hit by HIV, with 5.41
million people living with the illness. Mandela lost a son to AIDS
in January 2005 and has now fighting the pandemic his main cause.
Tickets for "The 46664 Concert Honouring Nelson Mandela at 90" cost
65 pounds (128 dollars, 82 euros) each. The concert was being streamed
live on the 46664.com website.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
