It is a song known the world over and Jerry wrote it after being inspired by an event to mark Nelson Mandela's 65th birthday18:26, 09 Jun 2026The Specials’ Jerry Dammers has told how performing his song Free Nelson Mandela at the huge anti-apartheid rally on London’s Clapham Common in 1986 was the “proudest moment” of his life.‌And that’s despite having not known three years previously who the imprisoned anti-apartheid activist, and later South African president, even was.‌In a new documentary which examines the biggest campaign for a single prisoner in history, Dammers says: “When we sang Free Nelson Mandela in front of that crowd it was just an incredible moment. It was probably my proudest moment in my life, you know?” The songwriter and keyboard player says he was inspired to write the globally-recognised anthem after attending an event in 1983 at Alexandra Palace, to mark Mandela’s 65th birthday.‌In the early 1980s, not many people outside of South Africa knew who Mandela was, or what he stood for, with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously branding him and the African National Congress (ANC) as “terrorists”.Dammers tells the film: “I was like ‘who’s Nelson Mandela?’ I’d never heard of him.” But he soon caught up. “Julian Bahula had a song about Mandela and I learned a bit more about him. I was working on a song but I didn’t have any words for it. I just wanted to come up with a very simple phrase that just said it straight away. It just popped into my head, three notes, you know. That anybody could sing really. Catchy.”‌The song’s popularity really took off after The Specials, featuring vocalist Stan Campbell, performed it on BBC1. “Top of the Pops had an audience of 20 million people at that time. Everybody tuned in,” he said. “It took the message out to a huge audience. It was amazing, it just took off around the world.”After the song became the anthem of the human rights struggle in South Africa, for which Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years, Dammers decided to get more involved in political activism. “It was very clear, the kind of everyday racism that I grew up with became socially unacceptable. And if you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem,” he explained.‌“The Tory party were very much in cahoots with the South African government and it was disgraceful,” Dammers tells the film. “Some of us didn’t want to be associated with that and wanted to be on the right side of history if you like. So we started organising Artists Against Apartheid.”The 1986 event involved a protest march followed by a free concert and was the biggest anti apartheid demonstration anywhere in the world up to that point. The stars involved included Paul Weller, Sting, Billy Bragg, Gary Kemp, Big Audio Dynamite, Sade, Peter Gabriel, Hugh Masekela. “It was such a huge crowd.” Dammers said. “I was adamant there should be plenty of black artists involved - the real clincher was getting Gil Scott-Heron singing Johannesburg, probably the first well known protest song about South Africa. The great thing was it was a really mixed crowd. Black and white - this is integrated London.”‌The backing vocals were performed by Molly and Polly Jackson, two girls a band member had met in a bar in Camden, while the chorus was performed by session singers Claudia Fontaiine and Caron Wheeler.Dali Tambo, son of Mandela’s ANC sidekick Oliver Tambo, said that everyone singing Free Nelson Mandela at the end of the huge protest gig felt momentous. “It was an apex moment for us, feeling that this was a struggle we were going to win.”Speaking 40 years on, British-Nigerian singer Sade, who was 27 at the time, said she was thrilled to be there. “Nelson Mandela was more than just a man, he was a superb, incredible human being,” she said. “To stand on that stage with Gil Scott-Heron, who showed us that music could be revolutionary, it was a big thing for a small young girl to do.” - Free Nelson Mandela, Channel 4, Sunday, 9pmArticle continues belowLike this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.