CAPE TOWN: Rocker Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band wowed fans on Sunday night opening their first concert in South Africa with a rousing tribute to the late Nelson Mandela.
He kicked off the show in Cape Town with “Free Nelson Mandela,” a song written by British musician Jerry Dammers and made famous in the 1980s by The Specials later renamed The Special AKA.
The track was released to protest against the imprisonment of Mandela by the apartheid regime.
But it soon became the unofficial anthem for the international anti-apartheid movement that piled pressure on the then white minority regime in South Africa.
Mandela died aged 95 on Dec. 5 last year at his Johannesburg home.
It was Springsteen and the E Street Band’s first performance in South Africa, nearly three decades after they took part in the famous Artists United Against Apartheid in 1985.
The Mandela song was a “nice surprise because it was a personal song for the audience. People were on their feet,” said one fan at the concert, who asked to remain anonymous.
Springsteen pays tribute to Mandela at 1st S. Africa show
Springsteen pays tribute to Mandela at 1st S. Africa show
