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Bono, Queen To Help Mandela
by Josh Grossberg
Dec 20, 2002, 11:20 AM PT
It's a song of hope for a country in need.
U2's Bono, Eurythmics frontman Dave Stewart, and the Clash's Joe Strummer have penned a tune in honor of South Africa's first democratically-elected president, Nelson Mandela, which they plan to perform at a February 2 AIDS benefit concert, Reuters reports.
The daylong affair, which will also include performances by such artists as Coldplay, Macy Gray, Nelly Furtado, Shaggy, Ludacris, Eve, Femi Kuti, and Jimmy Cliff, will be held at Robben Island, the maximum security prison (and now a World Heritage site) where Mandela spent nearly two decades as a political prisoner.
As a tribute to the 84-year-old peace activist's lifelong struggle to end Apartheid as well as his new focus of educating the South African people on the dangers of HIV and AIDS transmissions, the musicians have titled their song, "48864"--Mandela's number during his 18-year stay on the island, just off the coast of Cape Town.
According to Stewart, who is filling in as the concert's music coordinator, the song will end with Bono and company intoning the number and encouraging the crowd to sing along.
"It's a great way to close. . . to chant this number and get Nelson Mandela to walk onto the stage and be able to speak to the world about HIV/AIDS and the number," Stewart told Reuters.
Plans are also afoot to record the track for an album entitled Mandela SOS, which will likely feature live cuts from the show as well.
For Bono, the concert is a climax of sorts of his most recent lobbying efforts on behalf of the disease-stricken nation. The U2 singer was at the University of Nebraska last week with actress Ashley Judd on World AIDS Day to help Lincoln-based charity, Save Sub-Saharan Orphans, raise money to build a $100,000 orphanage in Kenya.
Other performers on the Robben bill include local South African musicians. No word who will take the mic in place of late legendary Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991 of complications due to AIDS, but surviving bandmate Roger Taylor issued a statement saying, "we can think of no better time, place, or cause for us to return to the stage."
Most of the 2,500 people attending the benefit will be specially invited guests while others will receive free tickets via local radio contests and lotteries.
Since the benefit is being held on an island, the event will be simulcast on large screens at Greenpoint Stadium in Cape Town where an estimated 35,000 people are expected to gather. Many of the artists on the bill will also take the stage at that venue as well.
Since stepping down in 1999 as South Africa's first black president of the country's first post-apartheid government, Mandela has turned much of his energy toward the emerging AIDS crisis that is sweeping the nation.
The concert aims to raise funds and awareness to help South Africa fight the current AIDS epidemic where one in nine South Africans--or 4.8 million people out of a total population of 43 million--are currently diagnosed as HIV positive. By the year 2010, the government projects up to seven million people could eventually die from AIDS-related illnesses.
The Robben Island benefit will be beamed live around the world via the Internet (mandelasos.com) while concert organizers are currently in talks to produce a two-hour television special. All proceeds, including money generated from the sale of TV rights, will go toward the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the United Nations program UNAIDS, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Robben Island historical museum.
Bono, Queen To Help Mandela
by Josh Grossberg
Dec 20, 2002, 11:20 AM PT
It's a song of hope for a country in need.
U2's Bono, Eurythmics frontman Dave Stewart, and the Clash's Joe Strummer have penned a tune in honor of South Africa's first democratically-elected president, Nelson Mandela, which they plan to perform at a February 2 AIDS benefit concert, Reuters reports.
The daylong affair, which will also include performances by such artists as Coldplay, Macy Gray, Nelly Furtado, Shaggy, Ludacris, Eve, Femi Kuti, and Jimmy Cliff, will be held at Robben Island, the maximum security prison (and now a World Heritage site) where Mandela spent nearly two decades as a political prisoner.
As a tribute to the 84-year-old peace activist's lifelong struggle to end Apartheid as well as his new focus of educating the South African people on the dangers of HIV and AIDS transmissions, the musicians have titled their song, "48864"--Mandela's number during his 18-year stay on the island, just off the coast of Cape Town.
According to Stewart, who is filling in as the concert's music coordinator, the song will end with Bono and company intoning the number and encouraging the crowd to sing along.
"It's a great way to close. . . to chant this number and get Nelson Mandela to walk onto the stage and be able to speak to the world about HIV/AIDS and the number," Stewart told Reuters.
Plans are also afoot to record the track for an album entitled Mandela SOS, which will likely feature live cuts from the show as well.
For Bono, the concert is a climax of sorts of his most recent lobbying efforts on behalf of the disease-stricken nation. The U2 singer was at the University of Nebraska last week with actress Ashley Judd on World AIDS Day to help Lincoln-based charity, Save Sub-Saharan Orphans, raise money to build a $100,000 orphanage in Kenya.
Other performers on the Robben bill include local South African musicians. No word who will take the mic in place of late legendary Queen vocalist Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991 of complications due to AIDS, but surviving bandmate Roger Taylor issued a statement saying, "we can think of no better time, place, or cause for us to return to the stage."
Most of the 2,500 people attending the benefit will be specially invited guests while others will receive free tickets via local radio contests and lotteries.
Since the benefit is being held on an island, the event will be simulcast on large screens at Greenpoint Stadium in Cape Town where an estimated 35,000 people are expected to gather. Many of the artists on the bill will also take the stage at that venue as well.
Since stepping down in 1999 as South Africa's first black president of the country's first post-apartheid government, Mandela has turned much of his energy toward the emerging AIDS crisis that is sweeping the nation.
The concert aims to raise funds and awareness to help South Africa fight the current AIDS epidemic where one in nine South Africans--or 4.8 million people out of a total population of 43 million--are currently diagnosed as HIV positive. By the year 2010, the government projects up to seven million people could eventually die from AIDS-related illnesses.
The Robben Island benefit will be beamed live around the world via the Internet (mandelasos.com) while concert organizers are currently in talks to produce a two-hour television special. All proceeds, including money generated from the sale of TV rights, will go toward the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the United Nations program UNAIDS, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Robben Island historical museum.
