Santana Donates Tour Proceeds To AIDS Organization

Carlos Santana is one top drawer guy. The legendary guitarist and his wife, Deborah have decided to donate the net proceeds from Santana's summer tour, The Shaman Tour, to Artists For A New South Africa's (ANSA) Amandla AIDS Fund.

The tour, which runs from June 13 to July 14, will support organizations that are fighting AIDS on the frontlines. The money will also be used for educating people on the AIDS crisis and ANSA's call to action to the South African government.

Santana is donating the money in response to the AIDS pandemic in Africa and will be the first artist to donate the entire net proceeds from an extended concert tour to charity. Not only will money be donated to the charity, but also at each stop on the tour there will be information tables about the organization and the disease.

ANSA was started in 1989, and "is a non-profit organization of artists and others now working to combat the African AIDS pandemic, advance democracy and equality in South Africa and further civil rights and voter participation in the U.S."

The organization reports that there are over 42 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the world and 29 million of them are in sub-Saharan Africa. Reports also indicate that 1,600 people are newly infected each day in South Africa, while 600 more lose their lives from AIDS related illnesses.

The details of the donation will be announced later this week (June 5) at a press conference in California. Nobel Prize Winner and South African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond M. Tutu will make the trip to L.A. for the conference.

Santana will play at Toronto's Molson Amphitheatre on June 29.