Meeting Mandela: A Staying Alive Special hosted by Beyonce Knowles

In honour of Nelson Mandela’s 85th birthday on July 18, MTV (Music Television), announced that multi-platinum recording artist Beyonce Knowles will host ‘Meeting Mandela: A Staying Alive Special,’ celebrating the life of the former South African president, according to a media release.

Hosted by Beyoncé Knowles, Meeting Mandela: A Staying Alive Special brings four young people to South Africa to talk to Nelson Mandela about some of the key issues affecting them and the world today: HIV/AIDS, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the struggle for democracy in Burma. Their stories, along with Nelson Mandela's history, offer an inspiring look at how young people can change their own environment.

The documentary premiered on Mandela's 85th birthday and was viewed everywhere from Tanzania to China to Hungary. On the premiere date alone, Meeting Mandela reached over 757 million households, including 85% of the top HIV/AIDS infected countries. The program will re-air across the globe on World AIDS Day.

Meeting Mandela: A Staying Alive Special is produced by MTV and Staying Alive in association with the Nelson Mandela Foundation UNAIDS, the World Bank, the Kaiser Family Foundation & Family Health International's YouthNet.

London/New York/Johannesburg, 1 July 2003 – In honor of Nelson Mandela's 85th birthday, MTV: Music Television, owned by Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), announced today that multi-platinum recording artist Beyoncé Knowles will host Meeting Mandela: A Staying Alive Special, celebrating the life of the great humanitarian and former President of South Africa. The 60-minute special, which just wrapped production in Johannesburg, found Mr. Mandela tackling several controversial issues facing young people today for the first time ever in a globally televised special, including topics such as HIV/AIDS awareness, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and the oppressive military regime in Burma.

Produced in association with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, UNAIDS, the World Bank, the Kaiser Family Foundation & Family Health International's YouthNet, the special marks the 2003 debut of the acclaimed Staying Alive HIV/AIDS awareness campaign and will premiere on MTV and other broadcasters globally from 18th July to a potential audience of more than two billion people. It is being offered rights free to all 3rd party broadcasters worldwide, and many broadcasters have already signed up to air the special including CCTV (China), Doordarshan (India), SABC (South Africa), TV Africa (pan-African network), Network Ten (Australia), ICP (Israel), ERT (Greece), YTR (Yugoslavia), CCN TV6 (Trinidad & Tobago), and Channels 3 & 7 (Guatemala), among others. For the second year in a row, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) will distribute the campaign's programming free via satellite to its 71 member broadcasters in 52 countries in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.

"Virtually anywhere in the world you can find a TV, there is a good chance a youth will be watching MTV. And whether you watch your MTV in Japanese, French or Swahili, it will not be long before you see programming from the network’s much heralded youth education campaign, Staying Alive".[1]

Staying Alive is an MTV international initiative to encourage HIV prevention, promote safer lifestyle choices and fight the stigma and discrimination which fuels the HIV epidemic. Staying Alive is now the world’s largest HIV mass media awareness and prevention campaign. It features the world’s biggest stars from Beyonce to Justin Timberlake, Mary J Blige, Diddy, Kanye West, Kelly Rowland, to Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton. It produces TV programming in the form of concerts, documentaries, public service announcements, TV film, film competitions and others. It also boasts a 13 language website which is both informative and interactive – www.staying-alive.org – with exclusive celebrity content talking about safe sex, from Wyclef to Shaggy, to Nicole Scherzinger, all the biggest and best names in entertainment have lent their voice to this crucial campaign.