Hour-long global broadcast special and vaccination campaign to celebrate heroic health workers worldwide, inspiring action for equitable Covid-19 vaccine distribution to everyone, everywherePhilanthropists and the private sector announce $53.8m in commitments for vaccine procurement, medical, tools and supplies. Global Citizen significantly surpasses goal of 10 million vaccine doses secured as part of Vax Live campaign (full tally to be announced during broadcast)
Featured appearance from Vax Live campaign chair Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and Special messages from His Holiness Pope Francis, US President Joe Biden, First Lady Dr Biden and Amitabh Bachchan
Hosted by multi-platinum recording artist, actress and producer, Selena Gomez, and musical headliners, Jennifer Lopez, Eddie Vedder, Foo Fighters, J Balvin, and H.E.R. Joined by Ben Affleck, Chrissy Teigen, David Letterman, Gayle King, Jimmy Kimmel, Nomzamo Mbatha, Olivia Munn and Sean Penn. Taped before an audience of vaccinated frontline healthcare and essential workers at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles
Prince Harry
SABC3 and 1Magic announced it will air Global Citizen’s Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World - a globally televised special that aims to inspire vaccine confidence worldwide and help get the Covid-19 vaccines to everyone, everywhere, on SABC3 at 9.30pm and on 1 Magic at 6pm (SAST).
Launched by international advocacy organisation Global Citizen, as the first large-scale music event for a covid-compliant audience of fully-vaccinated frontline healthcare and essential workers, Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World calls for new commitments from governments, the private sector and philanthropists toward the equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.
The concert was pre-taped at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, and hosted by multi-platinum recording artist, actress and producer Selena Gomez, will include a night of musical performances by Jennifer Lopez, Eddie Vedder, Foo Fighters, J Balvin and H.E.R, and joined by Ben Affleck, Chrissy Teigen, David Letterman, Gayle King, Jimmy Kimmel, Nomzamo Mbatha, Olivia Munn and Sean Penn.
Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are serving as campaign chairs of Vax Live and will be delivering an important global message for vaccine equity during the event. To help ensure equitable access to the vaccine, they’ve also been leading a coordinated drive across the private sector to raise critical funds for the vaccine-sharing programme CoVax.
EventsOnPoint PR 28 Apr 2021
The commitments announced on Sunday include $39.5m toward CoVax AMC. Gavi, as part of Gavi’s Matching Funds Mechanism, has agreed to financially match pledges to at least $11.75m, for a total contribution of $51.25m.
The 9 May broadcast will feature commitments from a number of philanthropic and private sector partners including Mastercard, Cisco, Procter & Gamble, The Analog Devices Foundation, The Stadler Family Foundation, Stanley Black & Decker, Accenture, Terumo Corporation, Spotify and The Coca-Cola Foundation.
Overall, $53.8m was raised by philanthropists and the private sector in commitments to vaccine procurement, medical tools and supplies
Global Citizen is proud to announce a special appearance by His Holiness Pope Francis, President Joe Biden, First Lady Dr Biden and Amitabh Bachchan. Additionally, President Macron of France, Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada and Prime Minister Plenković of Croatia will make appearances.
Vax Live is supported by the World Health Organisation (WHO), European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Prime Minister of Italy and G20 Chair Mario Draghi and Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sanchez, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg and the State of California.
His Holiness Pope Francis called for “a spirit of justice that mobilizes us to ensure true universal access to vaccines, and a temporary suspension of intellectual property rights. A spirit of communion that allows us to generate a different economic model that is inclusive, just and sustainable.”
President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr Jill Biden made a special appearance as part of Global Citizen’s partnership with the White House’s “We Can Do This” initiative to increase public confidence in Covid-19 vaccines. In their video address, President Biden said that the US is “working with leaders around the world to share more vaccines and boost production to make sure every country has the vaccines they need”.
Amitabh Bachchan shared an urgent plea from India, where cases continue to rise, saying: “My country India is battling with the sudden surge of the second wave of Covid-19. As a global citizen, I appeal to all global citizens to rise up, speak to your governments, your pharmaceutical companies and ask them to donate, to give, to extend a helping hand to the public that needs it the most. Every effort counts.”
As part of Vax Live, Global Citizen is campaigning to support the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator (Act-A) initiative – including CoVax – a vaccine-sharing programme co-led by the World Health Organisation (WHO), to ensure global equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines. During the special, Global Citizen will call on governments asking them to pledge a total of $19bn, the outstanding balance needed by the Act-A to get 1.8 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses plus tests and treatments to the world’s poorest countries by the end of 2021. As part of the campaign, Spain announced the donation of an estimated 7.5 million vaccine doses as soon as 50% of the Spanish population is vaccinated. France announced starting doses as of now, with an initial donation of 100,000 this month, and at least 500,000 by June, and Cisco announced a donation of $5m to CoVax to help purchase the equivalent of one million vaccines for health workers in the world’s poorest countries.
Health & WelfareOnPoint PR 14 Apr 2021
Vax Live is part of Global Citizen’s overall 2021 Recovery Plan for the World, a year-long campaign and series of events that aims to help end Covid-19 for all, end the hunger crisis, resume learning everywhere, protect the planet, and advance equity for all.
Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World is executive produced by Global Citizen, the Ad Council and Covid Collaborative, YouTube Originals, iHeartMedia and Live Nation. The Vax Live broadcast will be executive produced by Casey Patterson and Casey Patterson Entertainment and Ken Ehrlich. Producers of Vax Live, include Michele Anthony, for Universal Music Group; Michael Rapino, CEO of Live Nation; John Sykes, president, entertainment enterprises at iHeartMedia; Tom Poleman, chief programming officer and president at iHeartMedia, Rob Light, for CAA; Amanda Silverman of The Lede Company; Shawn Sachs and Keleigh Thomas Morgan of Sunshine Sachs and Diversified Production Services (DPS).
Global Citizen has continued to be at the forefront of the fight to end Covid-19. Last year, together with Lady Gaga, One World: Together: At Home mobilised over $127,9m in support of healthcare workers in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, and during Global Goal: Unite for Our Future, Global Citizen and the European Commission, secured $1.5bn in cash grants and $5.4bn in loans as well as the necessary political support to ensure everyone, everywhere would have access to Covid-19 testing, treatments and vaccines.
For more information about how to tune into Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World and take action visit www.globalcitizen.org/en/vaxlive and follow @glblctzn on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook 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. We post, tweet, message, vote, sign and call to inspire those who can make things happen to act — government leaders, businesses, philanthropists, artists and citizens — together improving lives. By downloading our app, Global Citizens learn about the systemic causes of extreme poverty, take action on those issues and earn rewards with tickets to concerts, events and experiences all over the world. To date, the actions of our community, along with high-level advocacy efforts and work with partners, has resulted in commitments and policy announcements from leaders valued at $48.4bn, affecting the lives of more than 880 million people. During last year's Global Citizen-hosted campaigns, One World: Together at Home and Global Goal: Unite for Our Future, we mobilised over $1.5bn in cash grants, with over $1.1bn being already disbursed. For more information, visit GlobalCitizen.org.
