IN CONCERT: Will Amy Winehouse perform? Former South African president Nelson Mandela throws a 90th Birthday concert this Friday in London’s Hyde Park called the “46664 Concert”. The three hour celebrity concert supports Mandela’s 46664 campaign against HIV/AIDS and features rockers Queen, Simple Minds, and maybe Amy Winehouse.
Winehouse says she still wants to perform but questions surround whether she will be healthy enough by Friday. LALATE’s guess - she’l make it! The three hour concert first profiled here on LALATE several months ago is named after Mandela’s prison number during his 27-years in jail: 46664. The purpose is to raise awareness of the HIV/AIDS epidemic especially reportedly hit badly in sub-Saharan Africa. There, 5.41 million people are struck with the illness. Mandella lost a son to the disease in 2005.
Top mega world celebrities will be in attendance: Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Robert De Niro, Will Smith, Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton.
The event actually spans three days with the concert only on Friday.
The event also is 20 years after a Free Mandela concert at London’s Wembley Stadium in June 1988. Do you remember that one? It was so huge, it reportedly reached 600 million viewers worldwide. Two years later, Mandela was released and became South Africa’s first post-Apartheid president.
How many tickets were sold for the event? Exactly 46,664 tickets for $127 each.
If there was ever an event LALATE wishes it was at this summer, it would be the 46664 Concert
