Global Citizen announces lineup for Global Citizen Live 2021

Today, international advocacy organisation, Global Citizen, announced Global Citizen Live – a 24-hour live broadcast with events and performances filmed across six continents to unite the world to defend the planet and defeat poverty. With performances and live events in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America, Global Citizen Live will air on ABC, ABC News Live, BBC, FX, iHeartRadio, Hulu, YouTube, Twitter and more on Saturday, 25 September 2021. Global Citizen Live is part of an ongoing effort to defend the planet and defeat poverty, powered by citizens around the world who are taking action together with governments, corporations and philanthropists to make change.

The 24-hour live broadcast event will feature artists, activists and world leaders taking the stage at iconic locations across the globe, including live events in Central Park in New York City, and the Champ de Mars in Paris; live-crosses from London, and Los Angeles; and performances and hosted segments from Lagos, Rio de Janeiro, Seoul and Sydney. Additional locations and location-specific details will be announced in August.

Artists and entertainers participating in the global broadcast special include Angelique Kidjo, Burna Boy, Davido, Femi Kuti, Tiwa Savage appearing alongside Adam Lambert, Andrea Bocelli, Billie Eilish, Coldplay, Demi Lovato, DJ Snake, Doja Cat, Duran Duran, Ed Sheeran, H.E.R., Lizzo, Lorde, Ricky Martin, The Weeknd, Usher and more to be announced.

“Covid-19 has drastically reversed the progress toward achieving the United Nations Global Goals, pushing upwards of 160 million people back into extreme poverty and more than 40 million to the brink of starvation. Progress on climate change has halted, as the majority of the Fortune 500 fail to set science-based carbon reduction targets. We must rectify the damage done and hold world leaders accountable for ensuring that the entire world recovers from this pandemic together. ‘Equitable recovery’ is not an act of charity – it is the only way we can ensure a fighting chance at achieving a sustainable world free from extreme poverty.” – Hugh Evans, CEO, Global Citizen

“As we humans spend billions of dollars in search of newer worlds in outer space, Global Citizen Live brings us back down to earth by reminding the global community that charity should begin at home and we must preserve our earth and be our brothers' and sisters' keepers. We owe it to ourselves and generations yet unborn. Space can wait!” – Geoffrey Onyeama, Foreign Minister of Nigeria

“I am very excited to perform at the Global Citizen Live concert this year. The timing for this call for unity couldn’t be more important. There is an urgent need for us to work together across the globe and take action to protect our planet. Mother nature has a way of warning us. We need each other now.” – Angelique Kidjo

Global Citizen Live is part of Global Citizen’s overarching Recovery Plan for the World, a year-long campaign to help end Covid-19 by calling on governments, philanthropists and the private sector for financial commitments to kickstart a global recovery. Ahead of October’s G20 Summit and COP26, the Global Citizen Live campaign will call on world leaders, major corporations and foundations to defend the planet and defeat poverty by:

- Helping end the pandemic by donating at least one billion doses to those most in need by September. With the growth of infections in sub-Saharan Africa now the fastest in the world, and still less than 3% of Africans receiving a dose compared to over 50% in the United States, world leaders must finally act with the energy and urgency needed to stave off further catastrophe.

- Reverting the Hunger Crisis affecting 41 million people on the brink of starvation by contributing at least $6bn to famine relief efforts and the urgent provision of millions of meals. This is less than 1% of the $1trn currently sitting idle in private foundations in the US alone, yet new figures released show hunger has risen more in the last year compared to the last 5 years combined.

- Resuming education by getting 4.5 million kids most in need back to learning by contributing $400m towards education. With only one in three children globally able to access remote learning during Covid-19 and the pandemic causing more than a 50% increase in the number of children worldwide who have had their learning disrupted by crisis, millions of children may never return to school unless leaders act now.

- Combating catastrophic climate change by getting the world’s largest companies to join the Race to Zero, this year, contribute to saving and restoring billions of trees, commit to becoming carbon neutral and developing verified science-based targets to reach net zero emissions, in line with The Paris Agreement – a global effort launched in 2015 that calls for immediate action to prevent global temperatures from rising beyond 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels. Only a quarter of Fortune Global 500 companies have made a public commitment to become carbon neutral, use 100% renewable power, or meet a science-based emission reduction target by 2030.

- Driving an Equitable Recovery for All through mobilising $250m to support Covid-19 response efforts, focused on people-centered justice, gender equality, racial equity, LGBTIQ+ rights and disabled persons.

The Global Citizen Live campaign is also supported by over 30 governments and world leaders including Foreign Minister of Nigeria Geoffrey Onyeama; the eighth Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon; United Nation Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed; as well as the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen; Prime Minister of Italy and G20 Chair Mario Draghi; President of France Emmanuel Macron; President of Chile Sebastián Piñera; President of Argentina Alberto Fernández; German Chancellor Angela Merkel; Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg; Prime Minister of Croatia Andrej Plenković; Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sánchez; Prime Minister of Belgium Alexander De Croo; Prime Minister of Fiji Frank Bainimarama; US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; UK COP President Designate Alok Sharma; and the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry.

The following governments are also supporting Global Citizen’s year-long Recovery Plan for the World campaign: South Africa, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ecuador, Guatemala, Ireland, Mexico, Paraguay, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore, Saint Kitts and Nevis. The campaign is also supported by a bipartisan honourary congressional committee chaired by Former Representative Charlie Dent (R-PA) and consisting of Senate Appropriations Chair Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT); Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD); Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH); Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD); House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Representative Young Kim (R-CA).

"Through more frequent and intense floods, droughts and storms, climate change is already pushing millions to the brink of starvation. A failure to support farmers and communities to adapt to this crisis is also a failure to guarantee individuals and families can feed themselves and thrive. This is why I am supporting Global Citizen Live, to ensure there is an inclusive, global, and collective action for climate adaptation in agriculture, - leaving no one behind." – Ban Ki-moon, eighth secretary general of the United Nations and founder of Ban Ki-moon Center for Global Citizens

"At this defining moment, we must reignite our efforts to keep the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Global Citizen Live demonstrates how we can come together to build a world where everyone thrives in prosperity on a healthy planet." – Amina J Mohammed, deputy secretary-general of the United Nations 

Global Citizen Live and the organisation’s Recovery Plan for the World are supported by a coalition of many of the world’s leading corporations including its global partners: Accenture, Cisco, Citi, The Coca-Cola Company, Delta Air Lines, Google, Live Nation, P&G, Verizon and campaign partner WW International, who will work together to engage support from the private sector in driving new commitments toward the campaign’s policy objectives. Access Bank, will also support the Global Citizen Live campaign as a partner in Nigeria.

For the past decade, Global Citizen has championed the most pressing social and environmental issues and joined the fight to end Covid-19, most recently with Vax Live: The Concert To Reunite The World in May, which mobilised more than 26 million Covid-19 vaccine doses and $302m to the Act-Accelerator for equitable health access to countries most in need. Since March 2020, Global Citizen has mobilised $2bn in cash grants to fund global pandemic relief efforts, and over 26 million Covid-19 vaccine doses.

26 million vaccine doses mobilised through Global Citizen's Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite The World

OnPoint PR  11 May 2021

For more information about Global Citizen Live, visit www.globalcitizen.org and follow @glblctzn on Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter and YouTube.

About Global Citizen:

Global Citizen is the world's largest movement of action takers and impact makers dedicated to ending extreme poverty by 2030. With over 10 million monthly advocates, our voices have the power to drive lasting change around sustainability, equality and humanity. Global Citizens have taken over 28.4 million actions since 2009. Today, these actions, in combination with high-level advocacy work, have led to over $35.4bn being distributed to our partners around the world, impacting 1.09 billion lives in the fight to end extreme poverty. For more information, visit GlobalCitizen.org