London Rocks for Nelson Mandela
Amy Winehouse sings, Will Smith hosts to celebrate world icon's 90th birthday.
LONDON, June 28, 2008 -- Singer Amy Winehouse was among the more than 30 world's leading performers who paid tribute to Nelson Mandela at a birthday concert in London's Hyde Park on Friday night.
Mandela, who will turn 90 on July 18, was honored with a celebration that included Leona Lewis and Josh Groban, as well as longtime legends Annie Lenox, Joan Baez and Queen.
The event was sponsored by the 46664 charity, an HIV/AIDS awareness organization launched five years ago by Mandela, whose son died of AIDS in 2005. 46664, pronounced "four, double six, six, four," is named after Mandela's prison number at Robben Island in South Africa, where he was jailed in 1964 for 27 years for leading the liberation movement against apartheid.
Will Smith hosted the event — a four-hour parade of performances by artists from all over the world — that included the Grammy Award-winning Soweto Gospel Choir from South Africa and Emmanuel Jal, a former child soldier from Sudan, who was introduced by Peter Gabriel as an artist with the "potential of Bob Marley."
Pre-recorded birthday messages to Mandela, warmly referred to by his nickname, "Madiba," were played throughout the night from such diverse stars as Victoria and David Beckham, Susan Sarandon and Morgan Freeman. U2's Bono and The Edge called for a public holiday to celebrate Mandela and sang "Happy Birthday" through a video feed.
The concertgoers were as diverse as the performers: from white-haired couples swaying side-to-side, to children cheering from the tops of shoulders. Tickets — exactly 46,664 — went for approximately $128 each and all proceeds will be donated to the 46664 organization.
But that didn't stop thousands from sitting on picnic blankets just outside the 12-foot barricades on Hyde Park's lawn to hear the music and see the tips of the South African flags being waved in the air by the "inside" crowd.
The highly anticipated performance by Winehouse, who was released from a hospital earlier this week after being diagnosed with early stages of emphysema, elicited a wave of cheers when she took to the stage to perform her Grammy Award-winning, "Rehab" and "Valerie."
