Global Citizen Festival posters midtown.
When you hear about a concert that has No Doubt(!), Jay Z, Tiesto, and Co. all playing in the same venue, you make a (virtual) beeline for tickets, STAT! I started seeing posters for the show back in July and by August 1st, the husband got us all set for the September 27 event. Fantastic.
And oh boy, oh boy, oh boy…WHAT A SHOW! We went from “Oh, we’re going to this concert in Central Park” to “THAT WAS AMAZIIING!!! I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT HAPPENED!!!”
Before I go into the highlights of Saturday night’s event, allow me to put the word out there: The Global Poverty Project is a movement working towards ending extreme poverty by the year 2030.
A big dream, yes, but achievable; much in the way we were able to eradicate outbreaks of small pox and come out with vaccines for polio and, coming soon, malaria. If world leaders pledge funding and everyone pitches in—i.e. give a nudge here and there via social media, helping increase awareness—by golly it can be done.
The Global Citizen Festival brings key touchpoints such as education, clean water, and sanitation to light, all while providing a memorable concert experience across multiple music genres. It’s a smart strategy, as people listen to awesome tunes, they get to listen in and find out more about this global campaign. Everybody wins. To quote from Forbes: “Much of the evening drew attention to the issue of open defecation and the 2.5 billion people in the world who live without access to [clean] toilets or latrines.” If you’d like to find out more about this initiative and how you can take action, visit GlobalCitizen.org.
According to The New York Times, the festival, now on its third year, brought 60,000 people to the Great Lawn at Central Park.
And now, highlights!
Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi—who greeted the crowd “Namaste!” and ended with “Om shanti shanti shanti (peace peace peace)”—with celebrity host, acclaimed actor Hugh Jackman. Image courtesy of Hindustan Times.
1) Talk about a star-studded evening!
In between musical acts and speeches by foreign dignitaries and world leaders—a who’s who list that included the Prime Ministers of India, Norway, Liberia, and the Queen Silvia of Sweden, to name a few—stars like Hugh Jackman, Adrian Grenier (someone in the crowd yelled, “Go, Vinny!”), Olivia Wilde, Zachary Quinto, Connie Britton, Jessica Alba, Alek Wek, Bridget Moynahan, you name it… A LOT of them came out to show their support for the cause. Jackman proved to be a wonderfully enthusiastic, devoted and entertaining sort-of-host (it seemed like he got the most stage-time among all celebrity presenters).
2) Getting to know Fun.
Or fun., as they’re officially stylized. We’ve heard their song “We Are Young” but didn’t know who they were. Their rendition of the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” somewhat reminded me of my rockclimbing days. 🙂 That said, they put on a great set, they seem to be awesome band, as proven by the folks around us who were singing along to their lesser-known tunes.
3) Two words: No Doubt
As I’ve mentioned earlier, we purchased tickets right away for the chance to see Gwen Stefani and Co. all on stage. And it appeared that the people in our section had the same MO: poor Carrie Underwood, so gorgeous with her perfect hair and that beautiful, powerful voice—both singing and speaking—ended up belting country songs in front of a crowd that just couldn’t wait for No Doubt and Jay Z to come out. When Gwen Stefani did go on stage, starting her set with the ubiquitous intro of “Hella Good,” it was beyond. The band’s live rendition of oldies but always goodies “Underneath It All,” “Hey Baby,” and “Don’t Speak” further cemented their PRO status in the LIVE Performance Hall of Fame (auto-tune wasn’t a thing in the 90s, people!).
4) STING!
I apologize for so many caps and exclamation marks, but I am obviously still ecstatic from the night’s shenanigan! At the tail end of No Doubt’s set, Gordon Sumner (gosh, I haven’t read that name in years) a.k.a. Sting came out to perform “Message In A Bottle” with Stefani. It was a bit anti-climatic as it was just one song, but pretty awesome, nonetheless.
The below screenshot links to the full and officially recorded video by MSNBC. (I don’t understand why they’ve disabled embedding for theirs.)
Screenshot links to YouTube.
5) Jay Z AND Beyoncé
Given Hova’s provenance as “NYC’s own,” his set came last, and judging from the majority in our surroundings, the most eagerly anticipated. And it didn’t disappoint: starting with an ode-to-New-York-City montage/background medley of Gil Scott-Heron’s “New York Is Killing Me,” Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind,” and Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York,” and Jay Z himself with “Empire State of Mind.” (While Alicia Keys was MIA here, she did have her own segment earlier in the show.) Then came a string of hits, “Izzo,” “Big Pimpin’,” “Holy Grail,” and more.
Backstory: Having seen the Paris leg of Jay and Bey’s On The Run tour on HBO—when it first aired a week ago and a rerun on Friday—I’ve been quite fascinated with and fixated on the duo. I wish I’d made more effort, paid attention to the tour, and scored tickets to the Brooklyn leg. I got amped up for Global Citizen Festival as Jay Z was performing anyhow. I did wish Beyoncé would show up, you know, since they both live in New York City.
So when BEYONCÉ DID come out after some kind of lights-off teaser/interlude, I was blown away. I lost it. Total fangirl moment. I love these two! Especially after Paris (what divorce?!). Le sigh.
