Too frail to travel overseas to the New York launch of the new charity initiative Mandela Day, the Anti-apartheid icon, Nelson Mandela, wants “people to remember him by doing small acts of kindness”, as several top performers and Hollywood actors paid tribute to him at a New York charity concert on his 91st birthday.

Mandela spent 27 years in jail before his release and was elected as South Africa’s first black president in 1994. The veteran anti-apartheid campaigner is using his birthday to promote a message of helping others.

Graca Machel told CNN in an exclusive interview that the Nobel Peace Prize winner was finding it difficult to come to terms with the limitations of age but he is fighting to carry on working with his charities.

Celebrities on the performance list included Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and the first lady of France, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, as well as Queen Latifah, Wyclef Jean, Lil’ Kim, Gloria Gaynor, the Soweto Gospel Choir and African artists Angelique Kidjo, Baaba Maal and Sipho Mabuse, AFP reports.

Hollywood stars that support the Mandela Foundation charity at the event included actors Forest Whitaker, Morgan Freeman, Whoopi Goldberg, and Matt Damon.

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