Emmanuel Jal

In the wartorn region of Southern Sudan Emmanuel Jal was born into the life of a child solider on an unknown date in the early 1980s Through unbelievable struggles Emmanuel managed to survive and emerge as a recording artist achieving worldwide acclaim for his unique style of hip hop with its message of peace and reconciliation born out of his personal experiences Emmanuel has released four studio albums Gua Ceasefire Warchild and See Me Mama Emmanuels live appearances have included Live 8 Nelson Mandelas 90th Birthday Concert and the One Concert for his Holiness the Dalai Lama He has performed with acts such as Faithless Razorlight Supergrass and Fat Boy Slim in Europe and has toured the United States as part of the National Geographic All Roads Film Festival in which he performed in New York Washington DC Los Angeles and New Orleans Jal also performed with Moby and Five for Fighting in the 2007 live concert film with Alicia Keys at her Black Ball in New York and more recently with Joss Stone at the Melbourne Festival closing Concert 2011 and Peter Gabriel at the 20th anniversary celebrations for WITNESS 2012 Emmanuel is in demand as a speaker and has addressed the UN US Congress the Carter Centre and the highest tiers of several governments He has been involved with the British Council Clinton Global Initiative Adolescent Girls Initiative World Bank in association with the Nike Foundation Child Soldiers Initiative and the launch of Ericssons Refugees Reunited Software He was one of the faces of Amnesty Internationals 2010 World Refugee Day Campaign and appeared at Alicia Keys Keep a Child Alive Black Ball 2010 in London In 2008 a fulllength documentary on his life was released The film Warchild won 12 prestigious film festival awards worldwide In the same year his autobiography also called Warchild was published by Little Brown Emmanuel Jal appears as the adult lead in the major motion picture Africa United a Pathé UK Film Council and BBC Films presentation in association with Warner Bros released in October 2010 In 2013 Emmanuel was cast as one of lead characters in The Good Lie alongside Reese Witherspoon The film follows the journey of three Lost Boys from South Sudan to the US due for worldwide release through Warner Bros in February 2014 Emmanuels music has been used in films documentary and TV including Blood Diamond Girl Rising ER and National Geographic IMDb Mini Biography By Emmanuel Jal