Alicia Keys better than Stephen Lewis can think about a headliner

When Stephen Lewis tried to supporters for his Hope Rising! benefit concert in Toronto on Tuesday, Grammy-winning artist Alicia Keys better than he can think about a headliner.

As the co-founder of the non-profit organization Keep a Child Alive provides medicine to families with HIV and AIDS in Africa, she already passionately as Stephen Lewis Foundation was involved in causes.

Lewis said, Of course, she's also a huge celebrity whose star power would help sell tickets for the fundraising event, a former UN Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa.

But Keys is also an extraordinary personality that shows the way forward its own interests.

He added, "I spend a lot of time observing celebrities and there is always, with the exception of (Alicia and fellow performer Angelique Kidjo), there is always a very strong, strong sense of self-aggrandizement and self-promotion," Lewis said Tuesday during a roundtable interview with Keys and Kidjo.

"And with Alicia Keys you get tremendous engagement with the issue with no sense of self-promotion at all — just a decent human being who cares deeply and uses the extraordinary profile she has to give it force in the world.

"And I love that because it's so rare."

Keys and Kidjo were to be added onstage by Canadian musicians K'naan, Rufus Wainwright and Holly Cole.

Keys said she believes that no signal is very small in the fight against AIDS.

The "Empire State of Mind" singer said, "I think people get into their head that there's this need and you have to do this grand and huge thing for it to mean something and that's not the case".

"Even just your constant commitment, however small or big, that is something that is giving life to someone. If it was your brother, or your mother, or your sister, you would say, 'No, I'm not going to allow them to just die.'"

Kidjo was born in the Republic of Benin in West Africa, he said that sacrifice is no hope that the biggest gift anyone can offer is one.

Kidio said, "I come from a poor country and I know what it is to be hopeful. That's why I have the spirit that I have, because if you don't have that spirit you will die."

"Hope Rising! is a message for every single human being on this planet, we've got to hang on to hope, to be able to help the 10 million people who might not be able to have access to drugs, the 16 million AIDS orphans, we've got to be there."

Keys said that the surprising statistics help AIDS pandemic in Africa to attract attention, this number is more important is can humanizing.

Keys said."These are human beings. You put these numbers out there — 30 million dead, 33 million-plus infected, 16 million AIDS orphans — these are people, this isn't like some dot on a chart".

"It's hard. You get these statistics and numbers and you start to lose the soul of what we're really, really talking about."