With that musical firepower came contracts for a more than 11 hour broadcast.
“We signed with the entertainment department of television (stations). And when the head of the department got home and watched on his channel that they were calling Mandela a terrorist, they called straight to the news section to say, don’t call this man a terrorist, we just signed 11 hours of broadcasting for a tribute about him.”
“This is how we turned Mandela from a black terrorist into a black leader.”
The gig at Wembley attracted broadcasters in nearly 70 countries and was watched by more than half a billion people around the world, still one of the largest audiences ever for an entertainment event.
Despite some broadcasters’ demands for the politics to be toned down the message got out.
Singer Harry Belafonte opened with a rousing acclamation: “We are here today to honour a great man, the man is Nelson Mandela,” he told the capacity crowd.
Nelson Mandela was released from jail 19 months later, after 27 years in prison. A second concert was later held to celebrate.
“Before the first event, the prospect of Nelson Mandela’s imminent release from prison seemed completely unrealistic,” Terry would later say.
“Yet within 20 months he walked free and I have no doubt that the first event played a decisive role in making this happen.”
Mandela went on to negotiate the end of the white supremacist regime and establish multiracial democracy in South Africa.
Few seemed to notice that the concert was actually more than a month before his July 18 birthday.
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