January 18, 2003 - UPDATE: Concert canceled.

December 19, 2002 — Some of the world's best recording artists have come together to answer Nelson Mandela's SOS to eradicate the AIDS pandemic. Artists confirmed to appear at his historic "Mandela SOS" human-rights concert, Feb. 2, 2003, include Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, Queen, Yusuf Islam (aka Cat Stevens), Joe Strummer of the Clash, Bono, Baaba Maal, Macy Gray, Nelly Furtado, Jimmy Cliff, Coldplay, Deborah Cox, Ms. Dynamite, Shaggy, Eve, Ludacris, and Lamya, Angelique Kidjo, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Johnny Clegg, Bongo Maffin, Vusi Mahlasela and Femi Kuti.

Dave Stewart will be the musical coordinator for the concert and additional artists will be announced in the coming weeks.

AIDS has had a devastating impact on people under 20. To date, 28.1 million Africans are infected with HIV, approximately 1.5 million of whom are children. There are currently 11 million AIDS orphans in Africa, and if no urgent action is taken, there may be more than 25 million by the end of this decade. Faced with this global crisis artists like Macy Gray, Shaggy, Eve, Coldplay, Ludacris, Nelly Furtado, Deborah Cox are refusing to lose another generation -- their generation -- to AIDS.

"Much respect to Nelson Mandela for organizing this event," said Shaggy "I am honored to be a part of it."

The "Mandela SOS" concert was announced at a launch event earlier this month in Cape Town where Nelson Mandela, supported by Oprah Winfrey, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Richard Branson and Naomi Campbell asked "each person in every country not to be silent witnesses to this devastation but to answer our SOS by raising both awareness and the vital funds necessary to fight and win, against this disease." Since then, world leaders have continued to voice their commitment to both President Mandela and his SOS concert.

President Clinton said "For many years, the name Nelson Mandela was a symbol of enduring freedom, wisdom and inspiration. Today, more than ever, President Mandela continues to be a visionary whose life we use as an example by which to live. Through our work together with the International AIDS Trust, I have grown to know the depth of his love for human life, and the profound importance he attaches to our fight against the burgeoning global AIDS crisis."

Said Clinton, "I'm glad to see he has been able to enlist so much talent for 'Mandela SOS,' which promises to be an extraordinary concert. Our fight against AIDS is one that we cannot lose. Twenty-nine percent of the people with AIDS, about seventy percent of the total in the world, live in Africa. If these trends continue, this disease will cripple entire national economies and make it impossible to sustain growing democracies."

Presented by EPOP Productions (Education Powers Our Planet), the "Mandela SOS" concert will be staged within the walls of the notorious maximum-security prison on Robben Island where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years of his prison term. The concert will be supported by a global television broadcast and highlights will also be streamed live on the Mandela website (www.mandelasos.com), hosted by MSN, one of the event's sponsors.

Said Roger Taylor of Queen, "We can think of no better time, place or cause for us to return to the stage."

Tickets will be free and distributed by competition or lottery, details of which will be announced shortly. In addition, EPOP will produce a "People's Concert" simultaneously with the concert at Robben Island, which will take place at Cape Town's Green Point Stadium, allowing 30,000 more people to fight what has become a tragedy of unprecedented proportions. Footage from the Robben Island concert will be concurrently broadcast to the stadium, with many artists confirmed to perform at both events. Proceeds from both the "Mandela SOS" concert at Robben Island and the "People's Concert" at Green Point Stadium will be distributed to the Nelson Mandela Foundation, UNAIDS (the joint UN programme on HIV/ AIDS) the Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Robben Island Museum.