By Matt Elias
Well, the beautiful weather in London was short-lived, but that didn't stop Amy Winehouse from soundchecking Friday in Hyde Park. Despite the drizzle, Amy (who was featured in a bizarre Rolling Stone article this week) is at least that much closer to performing at Friday night's concert honoring Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday, which also features Annie Lennox, Simple Minds, Queen, Leona Lewis and the Soweto Gospel Choir. More than 40,000 people are expected to attend the show, according to CNN.
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By Matt Elias
(This report comes straight from London, where MTV News is covering the Police's final U.K. show. Check out the first post here.)
We spent the morning touring the festival grounds for the Hard Rock Calling in Hyde Park. Before we were allowed on site, we had to throw on some very stylish neon-orange-and-yellow vests (since the stage is still being built).
After walking around the grounds, I have to say that this might be one of the nicest locations for a festival, rivaling Lollapalooza's Grant Park in Chicago. There is a freakin' pond right behind the backstage entrance, plus people are riding horseback throughout the park — it's gorgeous.
Before the fest kicks off Saturday, there will be a special concert on Friday in the same spot, celebrating Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday. Among the performers, Amy Winehouse is "scheduled" to play, and the talk around town is whether she'll actually show up. One of the local gossip rags reported that her backstage dressing room has been turned into a makeshift clinic, just in case anything goes wrong. Oh, and there will be an ambulance standing by — you gotta love that free British health care.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to peep any of this. My neon-orange vest didn't give me the level-four clearance. Fortunately, the good folks at Hard Rock scored us tix to the event, so check back here Friday night to read my full report.
This in from MTV News producer Joseph Patel, who’s currently on assignment in Africa with 50 Cent. That’s right: Africa. The rest of us are either at our NY desks, in LA traffic, or otherwise chained to the Tri-State area. (We hate you, Joseph.) Here's his report on just one of the incredible moments MTV News has captured in South Africa this week:
It's a crazy thing, my job.
Yesterday, super-production manager Phoenix Higgins, super-camera guy Nick Neofitidis, and I flew 18 hours from NYC to Johannesburg, for an assignment documenting 50 Cent and G-Unit's tour of South Africa and Tanzania.
This isn't JUST a tour. 50 is here to see and learn about the region and continent in a way that perhaps he didn't appreciate the last time he was here, in 2004. This morning, for example, we rushed to Hector Pieterson Memorial museum in Soweto to meet up with 50 and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, who was giving 50 a lesson on Apartheid and its effect on South Africa. Mandela's grandson is the spitting image of a young Nelson, and has a lot of his grandfather's austere diplomacy -- except he's young enough to know who 50 and Jay-Z are. After the tour, guided by Mandela's grandson, 50 gave out 20 dollar bills to the local kids before his car got mobbed and his manager made him speed away.
The picture above is a shot of the younger Mandela and 50, mobbed by some local Soweto kids outside the old Mandela family home. Everyone here knows who 50 Cent is, and is in a state of suspended disbelief that he is in their country.
We were on our way to the Apartheid Museum, at the entrance, in fact, when we were told by 50's tour manger that we had to turn around and head straight for Madiba's house.
(Find out who Madiba really is, after the jump...) Read more...
