Mandela Day (song)

"Mandela Day" is a song by Scottish rock band Simple Minds. It was included in the single "Ballad of the Streets" EP which reached No.1 on the British charts in February 1989 and features on their eighth studio album Street Fighting Years (1989).^[1][2] The single highlights the songs "Mandela Day", "Belfast Child", originally its A-side on the full-length version, and "Biko".

"Mandela Day" was written for the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute (also known as Mandela Day),^[3] a concert held at Wembley Stadium, London, on 11 June 1988, as an expression of solidarity with the then-imprisoned Nelson Mandela, and was played live on that day (alongside cover versions of "Sun City" with Little Steven and a cover version of Peter Gabriel's "Biko" on which Gabriel himself took on lead vocals). All artists had been commissioned to write a song for the event, but only Simple Minds actually did so.^[4]

The official music video for the song was directed by Andy Morahan.^[5]