Free Nelson Mandela

Dammers told the Radio Times: "I knew very little about Mandela until I went to an anti apartheid concert in London in 1983, which gave me the idea for 'Nelson Mandela'. I never knew how much impact the song would have; it was a hit around the world, and it got back into South Africa and was played at sporting events and ANC rallies, it became an anthem."[3]

Stan Campbell left the band right after the recording of the song and the release of the video for the song, and had to be persuaded to rejoin briefly for two live appearances on the television show by the BBC, Top of the Pops, in 1984. Following those appearances, Campbell left for good.

In 1984, the students' union at Wadham College, Oxford, passed a motion to end every college "bop" (dance) with the song. The tradition continues to this day. A Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute remake, released in 1988, featured Elvis Costello, Dave Wakeling, Ranking Roger and Lynval Golding on backing vocals.

At the Nelson Mandela 90th Birthday Tribute in London's Hyde Park in June 2008, the song was performed as the show's finale, with Amy Winehouse on lead vocals. However, careful listening to the soundtrack revealed that, instead of "Free Nelson Mandela", she at times sang "Free Blakey, My Fella" (a reference to her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, a former drug dealer imprisoned for assault).[4]

The song was featured on Peter Kay's spoof television programme Britain's Got the Pop Factor. In March 2010, the New Statesman listed it as one of the "Top 20 Political Songs".[5] Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band opened with the song in January 2014, at the Bellville Velodrome in Cape Town, South Africa,[6] in the band's first ever concert in South Africa, which took place just six weeks after Mandela's death. Springsteen later dedicated "We Are Alive" to Mandela.