Performers in Central Park included Metallica, Charlie Puth, Jonas Brothers, Maneskin, Mariah Carey, Mickey Guyton, Rosalia, and more.
Global Citizen Festival: NYC was hosted by actor, producer, author, and Global Citizen Ambassador Priyanka Chopra Jonas.
In Black Star Square, Accra, Ghana, the line-up included Usher, SZA, Stormzy, Gyaki, H.E.R., Sarkodie, Stonebwoy, Tems, and more.
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Since it began lighting up Central Park's Great Lawn in 2012, the Global Citizen Festival has become the world's longest-running global campaign calling for an end to extreme poverty that unites millions of voices, amplified by the world's biggest artists, demanding world leaders take action.
Globally, the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed nearly 100 million more people into extreme poverty and is reversing recent trends of shrinking inequality, leading to the loss of at least three years of progress.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has aggravated the situation further, with as many as 323 million people now facing acute hunger, and 1.2 billion people now live in nations experiencing a perfect storm of food, energy, and financial crises.
The 2022 Global Citizen Festival will call on world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly and ahead of the G20 and COP27 in November to step up and invest $600 million into the future of women and girls, close the annual $10 billion climate financing shortfall, deliver $500 million to help African farmers respond to the global food crisis, and provide urgent relief from crushing debts to end extreme poverty.
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"Decades of systemic and political failures have led humanity into the midst of converging and rapidly deteriorating crises - climate, hunger, health, war and conflict," Global Citizen co-founder and CEO Hugh Evans said. "The most marginalized populations are paying the price of the stagnant inaction of our leaders, and now millions of lives, and the future of our planet, are at stake. We refuse to just stand by and watch. We refuse to accept the starvation of multitudes when solutions are readily at hand. We demand a secure future for girls everywhere. We demand governments keep their promises on climate funding. We demand relief from debts unjustly crushing economies. And we demand action NOW, while there's still time to change our collective trajectory."
Tickets to the festivals are free and are available by downloading the Global Citizen app or visiting GlobalCitizen.org to take action on the campaign's issues.
Broadcasting and streaming from Accra and New York City will air on ABC, ABC News Live, FX, Hulu, and other mediums.
A primetime special, Global Citizen Festival: Take Action NOW, will air on ABC on Sunday, September 25, at 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT.