UK/South Africa

London rocks for Mandela's 90th birthday

by Daniel Brown

Article published on the 2008-06-28 Latest update 2008-07-18 09:55 TU

Hyde Park rocks at Mandela concert
(Photo: Daniel Brown)

London’s Hyde Park hosted a four-hour concert to mark the 90th birthday of Nelson Mandela’s yesterday. Hosted by American actor Will Smith, it saw the likes of Amy Winehouse, Queen, Peter Gabriel and other stars pay homage to the former political prisoner who became South Africa's first post-apartheid president.

50,000 people paid about 65 euros each to sing an early happy birthday to Nelson Mandela.

Although it is a month before his actual birthday, the former South African President revelled in the passion he aroused in London.

But he also issued a call  to action.

"Even as we celebrate, let us remind ourselves that our work is far from complete," he told the crowd. "Where there is poverty and sickness, including Aids, there is more work to be done."

Amy Winehouse at the Mandela concert
(Photo: Daniel Brown)

Mandela’s career and fame persuaded some of England’s best-known musicians to pay tribute to him.

"There’s no-one who has more of the world’s respect than Nelson Mandela," peace campaigner and veteran rocker Peter Gabriel told RFI. "And so it’s still a wonderful thing to treasure these moments while he’s still here with us." 

The concert raised funds for Mandela’s HIV/Aids awareness campaigns in South Africa, whose finances had earlier been boosted by an auction at a dinner in London. 

It crowned a week of events that many are saying could be the final public appearance of one of Africa’s greatest living icons.

There is good news for Mandela and his African National Congress (ANC) from Washington, too.

The US Senate has approved a bill to remove the ANC from the country's terror watch list.

The party, which has ruled South Africa since 1994, was placed on the list under Ronald Reagan's presidency in the 1980s, when the movement was fighting the former apartheid régime.