Bono and Beyonce play Africa

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (U2 Fans Website) - Bono, Beyonce and Queen are set to headline a huge AIDS awareness concert on November 29th in Cape Town, South Africa. The event, called 46664 after Nelson Mandela's prison number, was originally planned for February of this year but was postponed when a sponsor pulled out. Mandela was in London on Tuesday to officially launch a worldwide campaign to raise awareness of Africa's AIDS plight and is urging citizens from around the world to pressure their governments to respond to AIDS as an international emergency.

A CD and DVD of the Capetown concert will be released in early 2004, featuring performances by Bono, Beyonce, Queen, Anastacia, Ms. Dynamite and many African artists. Rock musicians at the heart of the project include U2 singer Bono, Queen stars Roger Taylor and Brian May, and former Eurhythmics member Dave Stewart.

Highlights of the three-hour concert at Cape Town's Greenpoint Stadium will air on MTV globally on World Aids Day, 1 December, to a potential audience of two billion. A song, 46664 (Long Walk to Freedom), - performed by Bono, Youssou N'Dour, Abdel and Dave Stewart - is released on Tuesday.

In a music industry first, it will only be available throughout the world via telephone lines, then subsequently on the Web at www.46664.com. Audiences can listen by dialling different numbers throughout the world, which will in most countries incorporate the five digits 46664.
Some 30 million Africans are affected by Aids, and 4.1 million are predicted to die in the near-term unless they get access to affordable treatment.