Joining Stewart onstage July 18 for Mandela Day at Madison Square Garden will be none other than France’s First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, with whom he has been recently collaborating on new songs.
Other artists expected to pay tribute to the former South African president and “international symbol of reconciliation and forgiveness” include Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Queen Latifah, Cyndi Lauper, Jesse McCartney, Josh Groban, Wyclef Jean, TLC, Angelique Kidjo, Baaba Maal and the Soweto Gospel Choir.
The concert is open to the public, with tickets, priced from $50 to $350, and VIP packages, at $1,000 and up, available at the MSG box office and other ticket outlets.
The show is the culmination of a week-long series of events in New York City in celebration of the first-ever Mandela Day – including an exhibition examining Mandela’s life and a gala fundraising dinner hosted by President Bill Clinton – and is part of the 46664 campaign, a global initiative that Stewart created in 2002 using Mandela’s Robben Island prison number.
The goal of the organization is to help address critical social issues like the HIV/AIDS epidemic and help eliminate conditions which exacerbate the crisis like poverty, gender inequality and lack of education.
In the past seven years, Stewart has helped organize several events, including a four-and-a-half hour 46664 concert held in South Africa on World AIDS Day featuring his long-time songwriting partner and band mate Annie Lennox, as well as Queen, Bono and The Edge, Beyoncé, Bob Geldof, Jimmy Cliff, Peter Gabriel, Anastacia and many others.
To date the 46664 campaign has raised millions of dollars which have been applied to supporting projects in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa where current needs are deemed greatest.