"46664 Radio Sampler" - Various Artists

Promotional Release

U2 Related Content:

Full Track Listing:

  • 7 Seconds – Eurythmics, Youssou N’Dour (5:10)
  • People – Johnny Clegg / Jimmy Cliff (4:40)
  • Is this the World We Created? – Andrea Corr / Brian May (2:31)
  • American Prayer – Beyonce, Bono, the Edge, David A. Stewart (4:13)
  • Say it’s Not True – Queen, David A. Stewart (2:32)
  • Don’t Throw Your Life Away – Ms. Dynamite (3:56)

Background Information

On October 21, 2003, it was announced that a huge concert would be held in Cape Town, South Africa to raise awareness of Africa’s AIDS plight. The initiative, called 46664 represented Nelson Mandela’s prison number for more than 18 years while he was a prisoner in Robben Island in South Africa. Mandela explained the use of the number, “Millions of people today infected with AIDS are just that — a number,” he said. “They too are serving a prison sentence for life. That’s why for the first time I am allowing my prison number…to brand this campaign.” The concert had initially been planned for earlier in 2003 but had been pushed back to coincide with World AIDS Day. The concert was streamed on the internet, and was later televised to the world.

The track featured on this promo featuring U2 is a song called “American Prayer” which Bono and David Stewart wrote and Bono often performed in 2002 on his “Heart of America” tour when he was bringing information on the AIDS crisis to middle America. Stewart gives some insight into the song: “The song “American Prayer” had been written by Bono and Dave Stewart, and is included here on this compilation. Stewart describes the song in the booklet: “It’s impossible to explain the writing of American Prayer with Bono in a short paragraph, so to give you a hint: we wrote it in Dublin, Los Angeles, Miami, London, New York and Cape Town. During the process we had many versions and worked with Timbaland, Dr. Dre, The Neptunes; with Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez, Luther Vandross, Youssou N’Dour, Aaron Lewis, and we even filmed Oprah Winfrey singing it! This is not an easy story to tell in a few words.”

The entire concert was released on CD, spread over three discs. These discs were sold separately to hopefully bring in buyers who would only be interested in one disc and wouldn’t pay for a three disc set. Contributions by Bono and the Edge are spread out over all three released discs. The three discs capturing this live event are Part I: African Prayer, Part II: Long Road to Freedom and Part III: Amandla. There was also a 2 disc DVD released of the entire concert.

This promotional CD is made up of two tracks from each album, and was released to radio to promote all three discs. The versions found on this CD are in some cases slightly edited versions of what was released commercially, including the version of “American Prayer” which is 8s shorter, and fades in and fades out at the start and the end of the track. The version found on the commercial CD does not fade in and out, and runs as a continuous track from the track prior and after.

Liner Notes

American Prayer:
Performed by Bono, Beyonce, The Edge, David A. Stewart. Written by Hewson / Stewart / P. Williams.

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