Stars old and new come out to put the political pressure on
Global Citizen Live 2021 Various venues
★★★★★
‘We are uniting people across the world as a force for good, through the power of music,” explained Hugh Jackman at the start of the BBC’S coverage of Global Citizen Live 2021. Think of it as Livestream Aid: one of the most ambitious concerts of all time, over 24 hours, with hundreds of acts – including Elton John, Kylie Minogue, Billie Eilish, Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Stormzy, Duran Duran and BTS – across the world, to show politicians and corporations that, in Jackman’s words, “everyday citizens really care, and will not settle for anything less than change right now”.
Rather than raising money from the viewers, it was about putting pressure on those in power to act. Staged ahead of the G20 Summit and the UN Climate Change Conference, Global Citizen called on governments to do more to offset carbon emissions, help the poorest countries fight Covid and donate meals for 41 million people on the brink of famine. And it worked. By the end, $1.1 billion (£800million), 157 million trees and more than 60 million vaccines had been pledged.
The BBC’S coverage opened in Seoul with K-pop icons BTS. Their polished performances of Permission to Dance and Butter were proof of why they are the biggest boy band on the planet.
Then we went to London, where Stormzy, after a nervy introduction, started with a piano-led version of Crown. It was a very different mood to his bold headline sets at Reading & Leeds Festivals last month, but he’s always been an artist with as much emotion as swaggering bravado.
Kylie Minogue delivered a gleeinducing turn at London’s Sky Garden to an audience of a few hundred (tickets were free to people who had signed petitions and shared hashtags). Despite sharing a virtual stage with modern pop phenomena such as Eilish and Sheeran, it felt like Minogue brought the raw star power to Global Citizen.
Even so, as at last year’s virtual Global Citizen concert, One World: Together at Home, it was Sir Elton John who stole the show. While his scrappy, meme-worthy backyard performance of I’m Still Standing in 2020 was all excitable passion, this was an emotional, effortless showing from a living legend, with a spinetingling rendition of Your Song.
Looking back to the Aids epidemic, John said: “We’ve always followed the science and we put our arms around everyone to make sure no one gets left behind. These same lessons apply equally to the Covid pandemic. We must not leave anyone behind.” Such messages of compassion were repeated throughout the night, but it was stars such as John who said it best.
It’s a shame, then, that the BBC put more emphasis on explaining the point of Global Citizen rather than letting us experience it. Most of the sets were broadcast just as highlights. Anyone watching the Youtube livestream instead saw John deliver a beautiful Tiny Dancer, as well as a brash Rocket Man. If only the BBC had remembered that, if you’re trying to make the world a better place, a little less conversation and a little more action go a long way.