Global Citizen announced Tuesday (April 13) that it will host a livestream concert to inspire people globally to get the COVID-19 vaccine while making it more available worldwide.
Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World will encourage philanthropists and corporations to donate “dollars-for-doses” in efforts to vaccinate more than 27 million healthcare heroes serving on the frontlines of the pandemic. The global broadcast and streaming special will also tap changemakers to call on world leaders to distribute the vaccines in an equitable manner. Vax Live will aim to inspire citizens from all over the world to plead with their governments to pledge $22.1 billion, which is the outstanding balance needed by The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator to distribute 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses and other medical tools to the world’s poorest countries by the end of 2021.
Selena Gomez will host the event, which will feature musical performances by Jennifer Lopez, Eddie Vedder, Foo Fighters, J Balvin and H.E.R. Vax Live, which is hosted by the state of California with support from its local departments, will be pre-taped at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and highlight the large-scale vaccination site at the Hollywood Park-based venue.
“I’m honored to be hosting ‘Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World,’” Gomez said in a press statement. “This is a historic moment to encourage people around the world to take the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available to them, call on world leaders to share vaccine doses equitably and to bring people together for a night of music in a way that hasn’t felt possible in the past year. I can’t wait to be a part of it.”
The international advocacy organization noted that Vax Live will be part of its overall 2021 Recovery Plan for the World, a yearlong campaign and series of events designed to better the planet by ending COVID-19 and the hunger crisis, resuming learning, protecting the planet and advancing equity.
“As a global community, we are in a race against time, and the key to coming back together is the vaccine. We need to build vaccine confidence in the U.S. and globally, and encourage people to take the vaccine as quickly as possible,” said Global Citizen CEO and co-founder Hugh Evans in a statement. “There is a light at the end of this tunnel, but getting vaccines to everyone, everywhere regardless of who they are or where they are from, is key to ensuring the end of this pandemic around the world. We must all unite to get back on track to eradicating extreme poverty.”
This global charitable and music special follows on the heels of last year’s One World: Together at Home and Global Goal: Unite for Our Future, which helped mobilize more than $1.5 billion in cash grants, with over $1.1 billion already disbursed.
Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World will simultaneously air and start livestreaming Saturday, May 8 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, ABC News Live, CBS, YouTube, iHeartMedia broadcast radio stations and the iHeartRadio App. It will air on Fox at 11 p.m. ET the same day.
Streaming partner YouTube will stream a 90-minute extended version of Vax Live on the Global Citizen channel, which will include additional performances and appearances by NCT 127 and YouTube creators Daniel El Travieso, Kati Morton, ShootforLove, Thembe Mahlaba and The Try Guys.
More information about Vax Live can be found here.
