Names and faces

LITTLE ROCK — Jason Mraz will make history next month when he performs in Burma to raise awareness about human trafficking. Mraz will headline a free outdoor concert on Dec. 16 at People’s Square in Rangoon, at the base of Shwedagon Pagoda. The Grammy-winning singer songwriter is the first international artist to perform an open-air concert in the country since the end of military rule last year. And he is believed to be just the second Western act to perform in the country in decades, joining Ozomatli’s U.S. State Department-sponsored appearance in 2009. “That’s pretty exciting,” Mraz said of the history involved, “and I’m going there with an enormous amount of gratitude and respect, and I hope we can actually make a difference. I hope it’s also a testament to the songs. I’ve always wanted my songs to be about healing and self-empowerment, and if this is the way MTV is acknowledging that, then I am incredibly grateful.” The show includes local acts and is hosted by MTV EXIT, the music channel’s initiative to raise awareness about human trafficking and exploitation. It will be broadcast on Burmese national television and will air on MTV’s international network in 2013. Mraz hosted a similar concert in the Philippines last year. He first became interested in the issue about four years ago when he attended the Freedom Awards, an annual salute to those working against human exploitation put on by the organization Free the Slaves. “There was a recent estimate that there are about 27 million people enslaved on the planet, certainly due to hard economic times not just in the Western world but certainly in Third World countries,” Mraz said in a phone interview from Zurich, Switzerland. “Humans as a commodity is a great way to run your business. So I signed on, lent my voice, lent my music to the cause.”

Stephen Colbert is taking his place at the Madame Tussauds wax museum in Washington and will be featured in a new media gallery. Colbert visited the museum Friday to unveil a wax figure created to represent him. The museum said Colbert donated his own clothes to dress the figure in a suit, tie, cuff links and lapel pin. Colbert wore an identical outfit. The new figure will be the centerpiece of a new media gallery with a replica of The Colbert Report set where guests can sit next to Colbert’s figure behind his fake news desk.