Will Smith charmed the crowd, Amy Winehouse wowed them just by showing up — but Nelson Mandela proved the biggest star of all at a concert in honor of the South African statesman’s 90th birthday.
Acts including Queen, Razorlight, Leona Lewis and a host of African stars joined more than 40,000 music fans for the outdoor show in London’s Hyde Park on Friday, hosted by Hollywood star Smith and held to mark Mandela’s birthday on July 18.
American singer Josh Groban and the Soweto Gospel Choir also performed at the event, which comes 20 years after a 70th birthday concert at London’s Wembley Stadium that helped press South Africa’s apartheid authorities for Mandela’s freedom.
The biggest cheers of the night were reserved for Mandela, who told the crowd that the 1988 concert had made a difference.
“Your voices carried across the water to inspire us in our prison cells far away,” said Mandela, who spent 27 years in South African prisons. “We are honored to be back in London for this wonderful celebration.”
“But even as we celebrate, let us remind ourselves that our work is far from complete,” Mandela said.
Proceeds from the show — for which there were 46,664 tickets — are going to 46664, the AIDS charity named for the number Mandela wore in prison.
Mandela looked frail and leaned on a cane as he was helped to the stage by his wife, Graca Machel. But his brief speech brought thunderous applause.
“Where there is poverty and sickness including AIDS, where human beings are being oppressed, there is more work to be done,” Mandela said. “Our work is for freedom for all.”
“We say tonight after nearly 90 years of life, it is time for new hands to lift the burdens. It is in your hands now,” Mandela said.
One of the past century’s most admired political figures, Mandela attracted a sense of respect approaching reverence from concertgoers and performers alike.
Singer Leona Lewis dedicated her global chart-topper Bleeding Love to him, saying that when she was a child her aunt and grandmother told her stories “about this incredible, wonderful and great man, Nelson Mandela.”
“Happy birthday. Thank you so much for everything,” she said.
Mandela, a frequent visitor to London, has been in the city since Monday for a week of birthday events. At a star-studded dinner on Wednesday, he criticized Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe for the first time, saying there had been a “tragic failure of leadership” in the southern African country.
Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and was elected South Africa’s first black president in 1994. He retired from politics in 1999 and has since campaigned to prevent the spread of AIDS.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
RSS