Hollywood actors Sharon Stone and Kevin Spacey hosted the red-carpet gala evening at the Royal Albert Hall in London, which featured unique duets to honor Gorbachev’s achievements and tell his life story.
“Well, he was instrumental in ending the Cold War and letting the Soviet Union, the biggest break up of a country ever, of an empire [go] peacefully and democratically. Pretty good!” said Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, to NTD News.
Other high-profile guests paying tribute to the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize laureate included actor-turned-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Israeli President Shimon Peres, and former Polish President Lech Walesa, a contemporary of Gorbachev.
“His achievement is his failed attempt to reform the communist system which enabled other communist countries to win freedom,” Mr. Walesa told NTD News.
Among the night’s performers at the prestigious Central London venue were Roxy Music frontman Brian Ferry, Shirley Bassey, mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins, and former Spice Girl Melanie C.
“[Gorbachev] stood up for change and … was responsible or partly responsible for a great change in the world and how we are today, our relationship with Russia. So it’s a wonderful night to celebrate that,” said Melanie C to NTD News.
German rockers the Scorpions also performed at the concert. In 1991 the band played for Gorbachev at the Kremlin, and on their 1988 tour were the second Western band to play in the Soviet Union.
Matthias Jabs, guitarist for the Scorpions, told NTD News, “We had a very big song called ‘Wind of Change’, that was written in Moscow, when we played in 1988 in Moscow Music Peace Festival, at the big stadium. That’s where the inspiration came from. Two years later we were invited by him to the Kremlin, so we actually performed, and talked to him.”
Tickets to the glitzy event ranged from £190 to £100,000. After deduction of costs, all proceeds from the event are to be split between the Gorbachev Foundation and Macmillan Cancer Support.
