andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

A headlining performance by musician Alicia Keys will open the six-day-long International AIDS Conference in Toronto next month.

Blue Man Group, Our Lady Peace, Barenaked Ladies, Amanda Marshall and Chantal Kreviazuk will also perform during the kick-off show, to be held on August 13 at the Rogers Centre. Actor Richard Gere will also make an appearance.

The first portion of the evening is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. with a speech by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. Bill and Melinda Gates, who support a number of HIV/AIDS programs through their charitable foundation, will follow with a keynote address. Then Canadian opera singer Measha Brueggergosman will perform with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

The benefit concert will start at 9 p.m. Proceeds from ticket sales to the event will support various AIDS-related organizations.

“These two events in one evening at the Rogers Centre — the opening with the concert — promise to make this a memorable evening that will bring even greater attention to the AIDS issue here in Canada and around the world,” said Andrew Pringle, board president for the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research, according to the Associated Press.

Other notable guests set to attend the conference include former U.S. president Bill Clinton and UNAIDS special representative Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway.

Tickets are already on-sale through Ticketmaster. Prices range from $30 to $150 each.

Bill Clinton will write another book, the Assocated Press reports today.

The book will not be a sequel to his best selling autobiography, but will rather talk about public service and individual citizen activism. Clinton says he was inspired to write the book during his humanitarian aide visits around the world in the last few years.

It was not released how much Clinton received for the new book deal. He had a received an advance of $10-12 million for his autobiography My Life. It sold two million copies.

“We all have the capacity to do great things like this, and I am writing this book to encourage others to join their ranks. My hope is that the people and stories in this book will lift spirits, touch hearts and demonstrate that citizen activism and service can be a powerful agent of change in the world,” Clinton said of his new book.