World Cup fever has reached, well, a fever pitch, with just hours to go before the kick-off of the event that football fans around the world have been waiting for: the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which starts tomorrow, June 11, in South Africa. And music fans have reason to celebrate as well, as the festivities begin one day earlier, with tonight's inaugural FIFA World Cup Kick-Off Celebration Concert. The Guardian is already calling it "the biggest pop extravaganza in Africa's history."

Amadou & Mariam, whose song "Celebrate the Day" was the official anthem for the previous World Cup in Germany in 2006, are due to take the stage at Orlando Stadium in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa, for the event tonight, joining a lineup of artists from around the world, including Alicia Keys, Angelique Kidjo, Black Eyed Peas, Hugh Masekela, John Legend, Juanes, K'Naan, Shakira, Soweto Gospel Choir, Tinariwen, Vieux Farka Toure, and Vusi Mahlasela, plus football legends past and present. It will all take place before a stadium audience of 30,000 and a worldwide broadcast audience of millions more, starting at 8 PM SAST (6 PM GMT / 2 PM ET). Fans the world over can tune in online to worldcup.vevo.com for a live stream starting then, and head back afterward to watch again on demand.

Proceeds from the World Cup Kick-Off Celebration Concert will be donated to 20 Centres for 2010, the Official Campaign of the 2010 World Cup, which aims to build 20 centers across Africa offering education and health care services as well as football training to disadvantaged communities.

“We are thrilled to have a concert of such magnitude and performing talent raise the curtain on the first FIFA World Cup on African soil,” said FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke. “It is testament to the universal and unifying power of football and music and will start the competition off on the right note—of celebration.”

The Sunday Times of London recently took this opportunity to look back at the global renown the Malian duo has enjoyed since their 2005 Because/Nonesuch Records album Dimanche à Bamako, and explores the serendipitous events that led to their first international music making years earlier. Times writer Mark Edwards cites "the extraordinarily wide appeal of their music, with its unique mix of Malian traditional sounds, pop, rock and blues ... With Amadou & Mariam as cultural ambassadors from the continent to the rest of the world, Africa is truly spoiling us." There's much more at entertainment.timesonline.co.uk.

Amadou & Mariam recently performed their fittingly titled song "Africa," from their latest album, Welcome to Mali, for the BBC. To get in the spirit for tonight's big event, you can watch the performance, at bbc.co.uk.