Shakira, Cardi B, ROSÉ, Tyla, Rema, Ayra Starr, Mariah the Scientist, Camilo & Elyanna Light Up the 2025 Global Citizen Festival

New York, September 27, 2025 // From Central Park to the world, the 2025 Global Citizen Festival today gathered 60,000 global citizens on the Great Lawn, after taking a record-breaking 4.3 million actions, for an incredible day of music and impact. The flagship event from Global Citizen, the world’s largest movement to end extreme poverty, mobilized $280 million in commitments to protect 25 million hectares of the Amazon rainforest; over $30 million raised for access to education and sports for children in over 200 communities worldwide through the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund; and clean energy access provided to 4.6 million homes across Africa. 

Opening the day, the ceremonial movement Solstice Unites honored the land and the ancestral stewards of the festival grounds with an historic Global Powwow, passing the torch to Indigenous leaders in Brazil for the upcoming Global Citizen Festival: Amazônia in Belém on November 1. Women-led samba reggae marching band Fogo Azul kicked off the show with an explosive drumline performance, setting the tone for a powerful day of music and action.

Palestinian-Chilean artist Elyanna brought her unique mix of Arabic and Latin culture to the first performance of the festival stage, with tracks ‘Al Sham’, ‘Ganeni’ and Coldplay’s ‘We Pray’. Camilo then brought Latin pop vibes to the Great Lawn, treating the crowd to romantic renditions of ‘Kesi’ and ‘Vida de Rico’, and was joined on stage by his wife Evaluna Montaner for ‘Indigo’.

Nigerian Afropop star Ayra Starr lit up the stage with her high-energy set, blending empowering anthems like ‘Bloody Samaritan’, ‘Sability’, and global smash ‘Rush’. Mariah the Scientist had the crowd dancing to her tracks ‘Spread Thin’, ‘Sacrifice’ and ‘Burning Blue’, and South Africa’s Tyla captivated the crowd and had Central Park dancing to her monster hits ‘Water’, ‘Truth or Dare’ and ‘Is It’.

Ayra Starr returned to the stage for a surprise collaboration with Rema, which included his global #1 hit ‘Calm Down’ and a cover of Sade’s ‘Is It A Crime’. They led the crowd in a beautiful moment, when all festival attendees turned on their phone flash lights to make a visual pledge to help bring renewable energy to the continent of Africa, where over 600 million people still lack access to electricity. 

Cardi B brought her incredible energy to Central Park, with the first festival performance of her brand new tracks ‘Outside’, and ‘Errtime’, plus an energetic renditions of her international #1 smash hits ‘Bodak Yellow’ and ‘I Like It’. ROSÉ’s first solo festival performance was also one to remember, opening with her smash hit ‘APT’, and surprising the crowd with covers of The Cranberries’ ‘Linger’, and ending with ‘Toxic Till the End.’ 

Shakira’s headline performance brought the night to an unforgettable close, with the crowd singing along to hit after hit. Her setlist left nothing behind, featuring her worldwide chart-toppers ‘She Wolf’, ‘Whenever, Wherever’, ‘Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)’ and ‘Hips Don’t Lie’.

“The Global Citizen Festival is about the collective impact of our artists, global citizens, private sector leaders, and government officials to defeat extreme poverty. Together, this year’s campaign has broken all action-taking records,” said Hugh Evans, Co-Founder and CEO, Global Citizen. “We’re proud to celebrate the achievements of this evening, but the work to end extreme poverty doesn’t stop here. As our movement grows, from Central Park to the Amazon Basin and the G20, Global Citizen will continue to drive action towards achieving our mission.”

The 2025 Global Citizen Festival was broadcast and streamed in 75 countries around the world on YouTube, Apple Music and the Apple TV app, the Amazon Music En Vivo channel on Twitch, the Amazon Live FAST channel on Prime Video and FireTV, Brut, DITU, iHeart Radio, Mediacorp, SABC+, Veeps, ViX, VIZIO WatchFree+, the Global Citizen website and the Global Citizen app, and will be broadcast theatrically in India with PVR INOX Cinemas. Visit www.globalcitizen.watch for ways to watch around the world. 

The Global Citizen Festival is presented by Cisco. Major Partners are Authentic Brands Group, Bridgewater Associates, Delta Air Lines, MetLife, PayPal and Venmo, and P&G; Production Partner Live Nation; Exclusive U.S. Audio Partner iHeartMedia; and Location Partner New York City Parks. The 2025 Global Citizen Festival is produced by Emmy Award winning production companies Done+Dusted and Diversified Production Services.

Goal 1: Scaling Up Renewables in Africa

Since the G20 in November 2024, Global Citizen has been campaigning to Scale Up Renewables in Africa, calling on governments, companies, and philanthropists to deliver bold investments to bring electricity to the more than 600 million Africans who don’t have reliable access to power.

At this year’s Festival, that call was answered. Announcements towards renewable energy capacity were unveiled, enough to power more than 4.6 million homes across Africa by 2030, which far exceeded Global Citizen Festival's target of providing energy access to 1 million people across Africa. Pele Energy Group committed to expanding clean energy across 11 countries over the next decade, reaching 3.1 million homes within five years and 6.25 million households within ten years, while Globeleq pledged to connect more than 1.5 million homes to renewable energy by 2030. The European Commission also announced new projects to expand renewable infrastructure across the continent, building on its €3.4 billion pledge made at COP28. Energea announced they would be investing $250 million in Renewable Energy projects across the continent over the next 5 years. These commitments set the stage for the grand finale of the campaign at the G20 in Johannesburg later this year, where governments and businesses like Harith General Partners and Transenergy Global will come together to scale up renewables in Africa. 

Goal 2: Protect the Amazon

During this year’s Festival campaign, more than $280 million was announced toward that goal. The Inter-American Development Bank committed $100 million through their Amazonia Forever program for Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and riverine communities to support water security and resilience. Suriname pledged to pass the Sustainable Management of Nature Law and codified to preserve 90 percent forest coverage, approximately 15 million hectares. This was backed by $20 million in new funding from a coalition of organizations including Rainforest Trust, Andes Amazon Fund, Art Into Acres, Liz Claiborne Foundation and Re:wild. Businesses also joined, including Thistlerock Mead Company, which collaborated with Re:Wild and Global Citizen, to protect 1 million acres and mobilize $10 million for reforestation. Finally, Everland announced that they had secured more than $135 million to bring long-term financial stability to Indigenous-centered forest conservation projects in the Amazon, in line with the Equitable Earth standard. Jaguar Rivers Initiative secured $26 million to restore and reconnect ecosystems in the Paraná river basin. 

More than $345.5 million has been secured since November 2024. Next comes Global Citizen Festival: Amazônia in Belém on November 1, when leaders, artists, and activists will unite in the heart of the Amazon to rally the world behind its protection; where important new commitments from companies like Energea and Everland will further strengthen our collective impact and momentum.

In a major step to reshape the global climate agenda, the City of Rio de Janeiro, Global Citizen, Re:wild, and local partners today announced a five-year partnership and the launch of the Rio Nature & Climate Week, the first international event to bring together cross-sector discussions about the interrelated climate and biodiversity crises. The gathering will take place in Rio de Janeiro from June 1–6, 2026, returning the Global South to the forefront of advancing dialogue around nature-based solutions to our connected planetary crises.

Goal 3: FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund

The 2025 Global Citizen Festival campaign exceeded the goal of raising $30 million to help 30,000 children learn to read and write with contributions of organizations including founding donors MetLife, Bank of America and Cisco, as well as the Republic of Sierra Leone, and a commitment to pledge from France. This is in addition to proceeds from tickets sold at live music and entertainment events around the world including The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn tour, the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™, and FIFA Collect. Global Citizen and FIFA launched the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund earlier this year with the goal of raising $100 million to provide at least 100,000 children worldwide with access to quality education, by providing grants for community-based programs in over 200 communities globally. 

As nutrition is essential for access to education, a total of $112 million in new commitments from ELMA Philanthropies, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Irish Aid, and the Government of Canada to UNICEF’s Child Nutrition Fund were also announced. With matching partnerships in place, bringing the total impact to $220 million to support global efforts to reach 320 million women and children every year by 2030. 

Goal 4: Mobilize Thousands of Volunteers Across New York City

In the lead-up to this year’s festival, global citizens took action to help defeat poverty and defend the planet right here in New York City in exchange for free tickets to today’s event. Earlier in September, Global Citizen partnered with The Bowery Mission to host Global Citizen Day, where volunteers helped with meal preparation and served meals to care for New Yorkers in need. With Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy, in collaboration with the Black Surfing Association East Coast Chapter, volunteers collected trash and cleaned up the Canarsie Pier to protect New York City’s coastline. Global Citizen also partnered with Goodera to drive 40,000 people to sign-up for volunteer opportunities and earn points towards festival tickets by providing career development mentorship for young people around the world, such as resume guidance, and interview coaching. Additionally, the Global Citizen Festival supported mission-aligned nonprofit organizations across New York’s five boroughs, including: Bedford Stuyvesant YMCA, Breaking Ground, Citymeals on Wheels, Covenant House, Expecting Relief, Henry Street Settlement, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA), South Bronx Unite and WIN (Women in Need, Inc). 

Global Citizen Festival also saw commitments from IOM, where it committed to support 30,000 families in Sub-Saharan Africa with seeds, tools, and training, and to expand financial literacy and digital inclusion for 3 million displaced people and more than 2 million diaspora members. Tony Robbins shared an update on his pledge to the 100 Billion Meals Challenge, announcing that 62 billion meals have been delivered since last year. Lastly, Plant Village+ has also contributed carbon credits to fully offset GCF’s footprint. Combined with Everland’s offsets, this means our carbon impact will be covered twice over.

September was a globally impactful month for Global Citizen. It began in Southeast Asia with Global Citizen Nights: Singapore, held in partnership with Tsao Pao Chee and the NO.17 Foundation, bringing together leaders from government, business, and culture to accelerate action on the well-being and creative economies. The momentum continued in New York with Global Citizen NOW: Impact Sessions, where heads of state, CEOs, and grassroots activists announced new commitments on climate, health, and development. 

Global Citizen is grateful for the support of leading media companies, including adFUZE, Atmosphere TV, Branded Cities, Brut Media, Captivate, Digital Mobile Media, Grocery TV, GSTV, iHeartMedia, Interstate Outdoor, New Tradition, NYC Ferry, NYC Tourism + Conventions, Orange Barrel, Outfront Media, PMC: Penske Media Corporation, Secret NYC, Seen Media, TouchTunes, Trooh, and Wall Street Journal.

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