Santana to donate proceeds from summer tour to African AIDS group (8881)

Grammy Award-winning musician Carlos Santana and his wife, Deborah, announced Thursday that they plan to donate all of the net proceeds from Santana's summer concert series to Artists for a New South Africa's Amandla AIDS Fund, which supports groups fighting AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. "We invite you to join us in spreading a spiritual virus," Carlos Santana said at a Los Angeles press conference announcing the summer tour fund-raiser. "We invite you to create a masterpiece of joy on this planet." Actors and AIDS activists Alfre Woodard, CCH Pounder, Alexandra Paul, Blair Underwood, and South African archbishop and Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu, who will serve as an honorary cochair of the Amandla AIDS Fund, also spoke at the press conference.

Santana's "Shaman Tour" will run from June 13 to July 14. Each U.S. stop on the tour will have tables with information available about ANSA's Amandla AIDS Fund and HIV prevention. Performances held June 15 in Mansfield, Mass., and July 14 in Los Angeles are designated as "Golden Circle" fund-raisers, which will include special VIP seating and receptions with the performers. ANSA officials say they hope to raise between $2.5 million and $3 million from the Santana concerts.

The Santanas said they hope the concert series and their work with ANSA will increase attention on the impact of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, home to nearly 30 million HIV-positive people. For more information about the concert series, go online to www.santana.com or www.ansafrica.org.