World

Nelson Mandela concert rocks Hyde Park

by Paul Conneally | June 27, 2008 at 10:39 pm

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Twenty years on from a concert that I watched live on TV, as I did this one last night, I was moved by the sight and sound, not of the latest pop-rock star, but a frail, old man helped on to stage but speaking still, though quietly, like a lion.

Before the show, the crooner Josh Groban gushed that "anybody who believes in peace and equality should come to this concert," and the sentiment was noisily endorsed by the hordes assembled to celebrate Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday.

Twenty years after massed superstars gathered at Wembley to demand his release from Robben Island jail, Mandela has made an extraordinary transition from anti-apartheid figurehead into a sort of quasi-Christ.

"He'll probably be remembered as the greatest historical figure of this era," according to a hyped-up Will Smith, one of the fleet of Hollywood icons (also including Oprah, Denzel Washington and Robert de Niro) freighted in for the occasion and one of the show's multiple comperes.