Global Citizen Festival 2024 headliners announced
Post Malone, Doja Cat, Jelly Roll and Rauw Alejandro will headline this year’s Global Citizen Festival.
The 2024 edition is set to take place in New York on Central Park’s Great Lawn on 28 September. Additional performers will be announced in the coming weeks.
Global Citizen ambassador Hugh Jackman will host the event, which will also feature an appearance by Global Citizen Festival curator, Chris Martin of Coldplay.
The international advocacy organisation is calling for urgent action to defeat poverty, defend the planet and demand equitable access to nutritious food, stronger health systems and quality education.
“There’s undoubtedly a divide between what the world needs to end extreme poverty and what currently feels possible. Our mission has never been more critical,” says Hugh Evans, Global Citizen co-founder & CEO. “Together, we must hold our governments to account, and demand that businesses and foundations use their power for good. We must call for ambitious action to defeat poverty and defend the planet — there are 700 million people depending on it.”
Last year’s festival, which featured acts including Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ms. Lauryn Hill and Jung Kook of BTS, was a livestream hit, generating 875,000 hours watched, with 388,000 peak viewers and 143,000 average viewers over an airtime of six hours, five minutes, according to Stream Charts.
“We all have a part we can play to help end extreme poverty and stand up for equity”
Global Citizen Festival is presented by Citi and Cisco, with major partners including Bridgewater Associates, Delta Air Lines, Motsepe Foundation, P&G, Verizon and World Wide Technology. Live Nation will serve as production partner, while iHeartMedia is exclusive US Audio Partner. The festival is produced by Diversified Production Services.
First held in 2012, the festival is the world’s longest-running global campaign calling for an end to extreme poverty. Tickets are free and can be earned by taking action on the Global Citizen app or at globalcitizenfestival.com to demand change from governments and private sector leaders.
“It’s been a few years since I was last on the Global Citizen Festival stage in Paris, and I’m excited to join forces with Global Citizen once again in Central Park this September to drive as much action as we can to make the world a better place,” says Doja Cat. “We all have a part we can play to help end extreme poverty and stand up for equity. I’m looking forward to being part of this major evening of positive change.”
In Australia in March, Melbourne’s Palais Theatre hosted Global Citizen Nights, an evening of advocacy, art and music headlined by Crowded House, which served as the finale to the Global Citizen NOW: Melbourne summit.
Last year, Global Citizen teamed with rapper Kendrick Lamar on “pioneering” new concert series Move Afrika in a bid to establish a “first-of-its-kind” touring circuit throughout Africa.
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Coldplay respond to furore over upcoming Malaysia gig
Coldplay frontman Chris Martin has responded to calls for the band to cancel their forthcoming and first-ever concert in Malaysia.
Leader of the Malaysian Islamic Party (also known as PAS), Nasrudin Hassan, recently called for the band’s show in Kuala Lumpur’s National Stadium Bukit Jalil on 22 November to be cancelled.
“What does the government want to nurture a culture of hedonism and perversion in this country? I advise you to just cancel this group’s performance in Malaysia. It brings nothing good to religion, race and country,” he wrote on Facebook a fortnight ago. The protest was rebuked by several government ministers.
PAS previously called for a ban on international concerts with a threat to protest in response to Billie Eilish’s Kuala Lumpur concert in August last year. More recently, an independent Malaysian Muslim preacher called for BLACKPINK’s concert in March to be cancelled.
In a recent interview with Malaysian national radio station HITZ, Coldplay’s frontman responded to PAS’s calls: “Every time I meet Malaysian people, I feel such a sense of love and warmth. Everybody is welcome to our show. We love all people, all kinds of people, all religions.
“All leaders, all followers – nobody is excluded. We really want you to come to our show and feel free to be yourself and feel free to let everybody be themselves. Anyone who is not happy we are coming, we’re sorry, but we love you too.”
“Everybody is welcome to our show. We love all people, all kinds of people, all religions”
Coldplay’s upcoming concert in Malaysia has also made headlines after tickets appeared on resale for exorbitant prices, causing promoter Live Nation Malaysia to wade in.
According to LN, tickets purchased from scalpers will be cancelled if the sale was found to have breached terms and conditions.
MD Para Rajagopal said that no tickets have been cancelled so far, adding that cancellations will only happen when organisers have valid proof.
He also noted that the issue is an opportunity for authorities to regulate the sale of music tickets to protect the industry, fans, and promoters: “It took a show like Coldplay to open everybody’s eyes to what’s going on in our industry.”
Meanwhile, there have been petitions online for a second concert in Kuala Lumpur to be added after the Grammy Award-winning British band announced another night in Koahsiung, Taiwan, due to overwhelming demand.
Rajagopal said “Anything is a possibility. Discussions are going on for a lot of things. We cannot officially communicate anything,” and asked fans to stay tuned to the organiser’s channels for any news.
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Coldplay postpone Brazil tour dates
Coldplay have postponed a string of Brazilian tour dates until early 2023 after frontman Chris Martin contracted a serious lung infection.
Two Music Of The Spheres shows at the Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos in Rio de Janeiro (11-12 October) and a further six at Allianz Parque in Sao Paulo (15-22 October) will now be rescheduled.
The tour, which began in Costa Rica in March, returned to Latin America in September.
“Due to a serious lung infection, Chris has been put under strict doctor’s orders to rest for the next three weeks,” says a statement by the band. “We’re working as fast as possible to lock in the new dates and will follow up with more information in the next few days.
“To everyone in Brazil who was looking forward to these concerts, we’re extremely sorry for any disappointment and inconvenience, and we’re so grateful for your understanding at this challenging time where we need to prioritise Chris’ health.”
“We’re optimistic that Chris will return to good health after the prescribed medical break”
The statement continues: “Please hold on to your tickets as they will be valid for the new rescheduled dates. These will happen in early 2023 and will be announced very soon. However, we will also honour all requests for ticket refunds – which will be available at the point of sale.
“We’re optimistic that Chris will return to good health after the prescribed medical break and look forward to resuming the tour as soon as possible.”
Click here to read IQ‘s in-depth feature behind the scenes of the groundbreaking Music Of The Spheres World Tour. More than 5.4 million tickets have been sold for the tour after the band’s 2023 UK and European stadium dates went on sale in August.
The tour is currently set to resume in Argentina at Estadio River Plate, Buenos Aires on 25 October.
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Coldplay detail ‘eco-friendly’ world tour
Coldplay have announced their first tour in four years, which will have an ‘eco-friendly’ focus.
The British band previously said that they would put touring plans on hold as they investigate how to make their concerts more sustainable.
Today, they announced their return to the road which will follow the band’s new album ‘Music of the Spheres’, out tomorrow (15 October).
The Music of the Spheres world tour will kick off in March 2022 in Costa Rica, which has one of the highest rates of renewable energy generation in the world.
Dates for the first seven countries have been announced today and include three at Wembley Stadium (cap. 90,000) in London, two at Stade de France (81,000) in Paris and two at Olympiastadion Berlin (74,000).
According to frontman Chris Martin revealed that the tour will partly be powered by a dancefloor that generates electricity when fans jump up and down, and pedal power at the venues.
“I literally really need you to jump up and down. Because if you don’t, then the lights go out.”
Martin told the BBC in his first interview about the plans that fans will be on “kinetic flooring”.
“When they move, they power the concert,” he said. “And we have bicycles too that do the same thing.”
“The more people move, the more they’re helping. You know when the frontman says, ‘We need you to jump up and down’?
“When I say that, I literally really need you to jump up and down. Because if you don’t, then the lights go out.”
The kinetic flooring is part of a 12-point plan to cut the band’s carbon footprint.
The concerts will use electricity from batteries fuelled by fan power as well as solar energy, recycled cooking oil from local restaurants and mains power from 100% renewable sources where available. For every ticket sold, the band will plant a tree.
“The whole show is powered from renewable energy, which is amazing”
The singer admitted they had not figured out how to cut the environmental impact of some parts of touring but their goal for a few years’ time is to have “slightly shifted the status quo of how a tour works”.
“In some areas, there’s still not enough possible, like how do you get people to a venue without consuming any power? That’s still really hard,” he said.
“Or flying – there’s still a lot of offsetting we have to do, because even sustainable aviation fuel isn’t good enough yet.
“So we know where we still have a long way to go. But in terms of the show itself, the whole show is powered from renewable energy, which is amazing.”
Ahead of the tour, Coldplay will open Oak View Group’s (OVG) Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle – the world’s first carbon-neutral certified arena – on 22 October.
Coldplay’s last tour, A Head Full of Dreams, saw them perform to 5.4 million people across 122 shows in five continents.
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Africa Day concert raises awareness for Covid-19
Over 100 artists and celebrities from across Africa and the diaspora came together on Africa Day on 25 May to take part in a two-hour virtual concert aimed at raising awareness about the fight against the pandemic.
Modelled on the Lady Gaga-curated One World: Together at Home concert, the show saw performances from artists including Angelique Kidjo, Wizkid, Salif Keita and Fally Ipupa and was hosted by actor and musician Idris Elba.
Senagalese star Youssou N’Dour also sang a remote duet with Coldplay’s Chris Martin as part of the awareness-raising event.
The show was broadcast online by the World Afro Network (WAN) and on 200 African television channels.
“We must show our resilience and share our commitment as Africans to overcome this and grow stronger from it”
“We face an extraordinary challenge but we cannot afford to be spectators. We must show our resilience and share our commitment as Africans to overcome this and grow stronger from it,” commented supermodel Naomi Campbell as part of the broadcast.
“Use your voice to call our leaders in Africa to use this crisis as a moment to build our solidarity and deal with deep structural issues that affect our nations and their economies.”
More than 115,000 cases of coronavirus have been reported across Africa, with the virus reaching every country on the continent of 1.2 billion people.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that Covid-19 could kill up to 190,000 people across the continent and infect between 29 million and 44m in the first year if containment measures fail.
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