Party like it's 46664

A star-studded cast of artists helped Nelson Mandela celebrate his 90th birthday with a giant concert in London on Friday in support of his 46664 Aids campaign.

Queen, Amy Winehouse, Will Smith and Annie Lennox were among the performers in Hyde Park for the gig, which was broadcast around the world.

The former South African president was received to rapturous applause from an emotional crowd, which fell silent when the global icon spoke.

“Where human beings are being oppressed, there is more work to be done. Our work is for freedom for all," said a visibly frail Mandela, who had to be helped slowly on stage. “It is time for new hands to lift the burdens. It is in your hands now. I thank you," added Mandela, who turns 90 on July 18.

Mandela, who retired from public life nine years ago, is now expected to retreat further from the limelight.

Anglo-Swedish rockers Razorlight got the crowd going, before Scottish singer Lennox gave an impassioned speech about combating the virus.

“We must do something to prevent a virtual genocide upon your people," she said, speaking of Mandela's fellow South Africans. She performed a capella with a choir from the Agape children's orphanage in South Africa, where most residents have lost their parents to Aids.

Troubled British soul singer Winehouse, who has been battling drug and lung problems, was back on form with a powerful performance.

Topping the bill, Queen and Paul Rodgers rocked the audience with hits like All Right Now and We Will Rock You.
To close the show, Winehouse led the ensemble in a rendition of Free Nelson Mandela, with the anti-apartheid anthem's writer Jerry Dammers on keyboards.

Mandela did not repeat his comments on the Zimbabwe crisis, which he earlier called a “tragic failure", but Razorlight frontman Johnny Borrell, Ugandan artist Bebe Cool and Spice Girls singer Geri Halliwell did mention the troubled situation.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told host broadcaster ITV that Mandela was an inspiration.

“You know when you go into a room and you meet Nelson Mandela you are in the presence of a great man the greatest man of our generation, the leader who ended apartheid and the man whose faith in the future was such that he risked execution, prison, intimidation, violence to serve the cause that he believed in," he said.

Ben Motsumi, 45, a nurse from Klerksdorp in South Africa, brought his wife and children. “I'm here to see Nelson Mandela," he said. “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."

Other performers included Simple Minds, Josh Groban, Joan Baez, Leona Lewis, the Sugababes, Eddy Grant, Jamelia, the Sudanese “war child" rapper Emmanuel Jal and a host of other African artists.

Legacy

Mandela said the giant 1988 concert in London's Wembley Stadium, which marked his 70th birthday and called for his release from jail, served to “inspire us in our prison cells".
Simple Minds frontman Jim Kerr told reporters: “At the original one, there was anger involved because of the circumstances.

“This time, there's a lot more joy. It's a unique occasion."
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.

The 46664 campaign, which has seen four previous multi-artist concerts, aims to raise awareness of the HIV/Aids pandemic, 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 made fighting the syndrome his main cause.

“I came to support a great man and a great cause," said Lisle Lewis, 34, from Cape Town. “I came to say thank-you. Mandela means freedom, understanding and love. I'm going to start crying in a minute!" the dentist said.
“He's taught me to be more appreciative and accepting of other races."

Tickets for The 46664 Concert Honouring Nelson Mandela at 90 cost £65 pounds (Dh470) each.

The three-and-a-half hour event was being hosted by Hollywood actor Will Smith. He acted as the auctioneer at a fund-raising dinner held in a marquee in Hyde Park for the charity on Wednesday night. Guests, including former US President Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea, Gordon Brown, Cherie Blair, Oprah Winfrey, Uma Thurman and Sir Elton John, stumped up £5 million (Dh36.6 million).

If her daddy thinks she's fine...

Amy Winehouse put her heart and soul into rehearsals for the Nelson Mandela birthday concert in Hyde Park and shrugged off the illness that landed her in hospital.

Despite missing a photocall with Mr Mandela and other performers before the concert the star was said to be in good voice as she prepares for the fund-raising event.

The 24-year-old star was in hospital last week with the early stages of the lung disease emphysema.

She performed what was one of the songs of the night — a version of Free Nelson Mandela with its composer Jerry Dammers of The Specials.

The song became an anthem of the anti-apartheid movement in Britain of which Dammers was a part. He helped organise Artists Against Apartheid and Mr Mandela's 70th birthday concert in London 20 years ago.

A spokesman for Winehouse said before the show: “She is recovering nicely, rehearsals sound good and we are right on track for the performance. The doctors are encouraging her to perform and her voice will be OK."

Earlier Dame Shirley Bassey was forced to pull out of the concert on doctor's advice and Naomi Campbell is alleged to have been dropped as a presenter because of her Heathrow air rage conviction.

Bono and The Edge from U2, who were not present because they are recording an album, recorded a version of Happy Birthday which was shown on big screens in the first half of the show.

-The Evening Standard