Shakira, Pharrell among Global Citizens Fest additions

International advocacy organization Global Citizen has announced that Grammy Award-winning artist Pharrell Williams and German superstar Andreas Bourani will perform at the Global Citizen Festival Hamburg, a free-ticketed concert on Thursday, July 6th at the Barclaycard Arena. The organization also announced that Shakira will accompany Coldplay in a special set. Herbert Grönemeyer and Ellie Goulding were previously revealed as headliners of the event, held on the eve of the 2017 G20 Summit. Global Citizen Hamburg will call on the most powerful world leaders to deliver on their responsibility and commitment to help the world’s most vulnerable people.

“Children must reach their full potential to ensure a peaceful and prosperous society,” Shakira states of her participation in the festival. “Politicians must take the necessary steps to eradicate poverty by 2030 as outlined by the Sustainable Development Goals. As Global Citizens that we are, I believe we can be the first generation to make sure children everywhere have access to quality education, healthcare, and proper nutrition to break the cycle of poverty in which millions of people are still trapped – I am looking forward to performing with Coldplay on July 6th to help raise awareness about the importance of coming together to work towards this goal.”

“The next generation deserves a better future. Let’s make sure our leaders commit the resources necessary to bring millions out of extreme poverty across the globe,” states Pharrell Williams.

“For me, music is all about personal experience and expression. I’m so excited to be a part of a festival that celebrates this expression but also thousands of young Germans’ commitment to a future free of poverty. With leaders from around the world coming together in Hamburg just after the concert, we can be sure they will be able to hear our calls to take action,” claims Bourani.

“The next generation deserves a better future.”

The additions to the performance lineup come at the same time as Hamburg Mayor Olaf Scholz publicly welcomed the Festival to Hamburg in a newly released video message. “Hamburg is a music city and Hamburg is known for its active and involved citizens,” he says in a message released Thursday (June 8th).

The campaigns call on world leaders to commit to addressing the Global Goals for Sustainable Development at the G20 Summit, with a special focus on the areas of education, health, development, and the global refugee crisis. The Summit is a critical opportunity to hold the G20 leaders accountable and urge them to take the necessary political and financial measures to fight inequality and poverty. In the two years since the Global Goals were adopted, little progress has been made. The moment to recommit to maintaining and increasing foreign aid commitments is now.

In six years, Global Citizen has grown into one of the largest, most visible movements of engaged activists in the world. The organisation reaches over 20 million engaged Global Citizens a month through content, campaigning, social media and video. This community works to influence world leaders and decision-makers to enact policy changes and commit significant resources to help end extreme poverty by 2030.

The festival is supported by major partners Johnson & Johnson, Live Nation, HP, YouTube, and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The full Festival will be livestreamed exclusively at youtube.com/globalcitizen.

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com