Former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela is currently in London. He is due to attend a variety of events organized on his 90th birthday. Friday, a concert in Hyde Park is scheduled, with Queen, Annie Lennox, Leona Lewis and the Soweto Gospel Choir expected to perform.

Dame Shirley Bassey has pulled out of the concert after having an operation on her stomach. The Monaco resident issued a statement which alleges she is hugely disappointed of not being able to perform. The gig is titled the Nelson Mandela 46664 concert after the prison number Mandela wore while incarcerated by South Africa's apartheid authorities. Proceeds from the event will fund the 46664 AIDS charity.

Nelson Mandela is expected to meet British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former U.S. President Bill Clinton and talk show host Oprah Winfrey, among other celebrities and supporters. Wednesday, a dinner party is scheduled.

Mandela will turn 90 on July 18. He was the first South African president to be elected in fully representative democratic elections, in 1994. Mandela spent 27 years in prison before 1990 for his activism and for being the leader of the anti-apartheid paramilitary forces. He became in 1961 the leader of the African National Congress' armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation).

After his release in 1990, which was broadcast live all over the world, led the party in the multi-party negotiations that led to the country's first multi-racial elections. In 1994 he won the presidential mandate with 62 percent of votes. He did not run for a second term and retired in 1999.