This year’s Global Citizen Live will take place in Rio de Janerio, London, Seoul, Los Angles, Sydney, Lagos, France’s capital city Paris and US city New York City and will include various artist’s live performances as well as pre-recorded sets. The worldwide concert aims to promote unity whilst rallying citizens of the world to urge major conglobates, governments and politicians as well as philanthropists to band together to help the world’s poverty-stricken communities and help rectify the recent global issues.

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The global event has been dated to take place this September to match with the UN General Assembly which is also taking place this September. Global Citizen Live will also coincide with other important meetings and summits including the G20 and COP26 set to take later on in 2021. Each act performing will be taking part in a 24-hour historic musical event, the concerts will be aired over many broadcasted mediums including ABC, ABC News Live, BBC, FX, IHeartRadio, Hulu, YouTube, TIME, Twitter as well as many more social media and televised channels.

Ed Sheeran will join the impressive list of artists billed to perform in Paris, joining the ‘Shape of You’ singer are hitmakers Black Eyed Peas, H.E.R., Dj Snake, Christine and the Queens and ‘Kiss Me More’ singer Doja Cat.  The line-up featured in Lagos include musician Femi Kuti, singer-songwriter Davido, Made Kuti and MTV Europe music award winner Tiwa Savage.

New York City’s event will take place at the famous landmark, Central Park, Global Citizen has been hosting events at the famed landmark since 2012. Performing at the city’s venue includes a vast array of artists such as ‘Bad Guy’ singer Billie Eilish and former Fifth Harmony member Camila Cabello. Also included to play the city that never sleeps are British hitmakers Coldplay, legendary artist Jennifer Lopez, ‘Good as Hell’ singer Lizzo, Shawn Mendes and rapper Meek Mill. New York City’s event will also see performances by special guests Burna Boy and Lang Lang, also set to take the stage at Central Park is 80’s pop icon Cyndi Lauper, known for her ‘Girl’s Just Want To Have Fun’ mega-hit.

Other artists donating themselves to the cause include Queen + Adam Lambert singer Adam Lambert, Alessia Cara, Opera tenor singer Andrea Bocelli, Angélique Kidjo, BTS, Demi Lovato, legendary 80’s band Duran Duran, iconic punk rockers Green Day, Hugh Jackman & Deborra-Lee Furness, Jon Batiste, Country music artist Keith Urban, ‘Royals’ singer-songwriter Lorde, The Lumineers, thrash metal pioneers Metallica, Rag ‘ n’ Bone Man, Ricky Martin, The Weeknd and Usher with even more acts to be announced.

Global Citizen’s Head of Music, Entertainment and Artist Relations, Katie Hill, has provided the following statement describing the organisation’s mission statement whilst expressing the organisation’s excitement to work with the host of artists. “Over the last year and a half, we’ve seen music bring communities together and inspire action during one of the most challenging times of our generation, We’re excited to join these incredible artists to unite people across the globe on September 25 as we hold world leaders and business leaders accountable to rectify the damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. As we carefully resume Global Citizen’s live events, we couldn’t be more grateful to each of these artists for donating their time and performances to make an impact through this urgent campaign.”

Potential ticket-holders must earn their way into the amazing event by winning their tickets and each location has its own draw. You must begin by downloading the Global Citizen app and creating an account, within this app users can sign petitions, write letters to government officials and politicians, share news and messages via social media plus many more actions. These actions can earn users points, which they can then use to enter to win tickets to the event. The first collection of actions was released on 10th August 2021, fans have until 24th August 2021 to fulfil enough actions to place them in the competition to receive tickets. The lucky winners will be selected at random and will be notified via email, once the email has been received, ticket winners have 48 hours in which to claim their tickets.

Click here to learn more about the event.

The singer wrote a meaningful message to her followers which read “I hope you guys are keeping safe and both physically and mentally healthy. I miss and love you guys so much,” later going on to express her disappointment, saying “I’m truly heartbroken to say that we’ve decided we need to postpone the tour”.

pic.twitter.com/r4UEG4CBbv

— camila (@Camila_Cabello) March 24, 2020

Cabello had planned to tour her latest album ‘Romance’ throughout the summer of 2020.’The Romance Tour’ had dates in the UK, Ireland, Europe and America, kicking off in Dundee for Radio 1’s Big Weekend, which has also recently been cancelled. There were seven UK and Ireland dates planned including the Radio 1 festival.

Currently, there is no information on when the rescheduled tour will take place, though Cabello reassured fans that it will be as soon as possible, with more information coming soon. She also said that she and her team have been planning a show that will be “magical and special”. There was also no information regarding refunds for tickets as ticket-holders will likely retain them for the later date.

Hey, I know times are scary right now but I just wanted to check in with you all Please stay safe & make sure to look out for each other & yourselves. We’ve shared some info on @shawnfoundation socials if you need any resources x pic.twitter.com/mN7b2bD10q

— Shawn Mendes (@ShawnMendes) March 20, 2020

Luckily, the artist can still connect with fans via social media, as she did on Friday 20th March with boyfriend Shawn Mendes. The pair sat outside to give an acoustic performance of their hit songs, also covering Ed Sheeran, as part of the ‘Together At Home’ campaign. Mendes recently revealed that he has donated $175,000 to the SickKids Foundation to support them through the coronavirus pandemic.

‘Romance’ was released in December 2019 following the release of six singles including ‘Liar’, which has over 200 million streams of Spotify, and her number 1 collaboration with Shawn Mendes, ‘Señorita’. This was Cabello’s second studio album, debuting at number 3 on the Billboard 200.

Check out the original UK & Ireland tour dates in full below.

22-24/05/2020 – BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend – Dundee, UK
01/06 – Resorts World Arena – Birmingham, UK
02/06 – First Direct Arena – Leeds, UK
04/06 – Manchester Arena – Manchester, UK
08/06 – 3Arena – Dublin, Ireland
09/06 – The SSE Hydro – Glasgow, UK
11/06 – The O2 – London, UK

On Friday 13^th March, the announcement was made with a statement which reads “After careful consideration we have come to the decision that Radio 1’s Big Weekend 2020 in Dundee will not go ahead.” It went on to explain to fans that the decision was made upon advice from the Scottish Government to ensure the health and safety of everyone.

An update on #BigWeekend Dundee 2020 pic.twitter.com/o0FO4YKAfk

— BBC Radio 1 (@BBCR1) March 13, 2020

The festival was planned to take place from 22^nd to 24^th May in Dundee, Scotland and it was expected that more than 70,000 people would attend. The line-up included incredible artists and bands such as Dua Lipa, Harry Styles, and Camila Cabello. Dua Lipa had previously said the she “can’t wait to perform some tracks from the new album for you guys”, and Cabello said she is “beyond excited to be coming back to Big Weekend.” Cabello last performed at a Radio 1 festival in 2018 at the Biggest Weekend.

Sadly, these artists won’t be performing at Big Weekend this year, though organisers are discussing a future event with Dundee council. Hopefully fans can attend their favourite festivals at a later date, even if it’s not exactly what they expected.

The cancellation is just another of many for the UK music industry, and if the organisers hadn’t made the decision to cancel, it is likely that it would have been put off regardless. This would be due to the ban which Nicola Sturgeon hopes to put in place from this week, meaning that all mass gatherings of over 500 people should be banned until Covid-19 can be controlled.

Other gigs which have been cancelled so far include Snowbombing festival, as well as the tours of Stormzy, The Who, Greg Dulli, and Avril Lavigne. Tom Keihl, the acting chief executive of UK Music, asked the Government to take “urgent steps to safeguard a music industry which is the envy of the world“.

An incredible group of acts have already been announced, and we haven’t even heard the full lineup yet. One performer to be excited for is Dua Lipa, chart topper and Grammy award winner, who is soon to release her second album ‘Future Nostalgia’. It is confirmed that Dua will perform new music, and although it is uncertain whether the full album will have officially been released by the date of her performance, it is highly likely that we will be hearing it soon – let’s hope so! The singer said “Can’t wait to perform some tracks from the new album for you guys”.

Former Fifth Harmony star Camila Cabello will be returning to the event before embarking on her worldwide tour of new album ‘Romance’, released 06/12/2019/. The tour will run from 26/05/2020 – Oslo Spektrum – Norway until 26/09 – AmericanAirlines Arena – Miami, Florida. Cabello is buzzing for the festival, saying “Radio 1 has been a huge part of my journey over the last few years so I am beyond excited to be coming back to Big Weekend!”.

Another artist with a recent second album release, Harry Styles, was announced in the lineup. Styles has already begun performing ‘Live on Tour’, the tour for ‘Fine Line’, which was released 13/12/2019. This means that the artist will take time out to perform at Big Weekend before continuing, and that we’re likely to hear many songs from the album, including lead single ‘Lights Up’.

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We’re heading to Dundee this May and bringing this wonderful lot with us @ajtracey @biffy_clyro @calvinharris @camila_cabello @dualipa @harrystyles

A post shared by BBC Radio 1 (@bbcradio1) on Jan 26, 2020 at 11:43pm PST

Currently the only other artists to have been confirmed are Calvin Harris, AJ Tracey, and Biffy Clyro. More artists will be announced on Radio 1 over the next few weeks, with plenty to look forward to, as the headline acts are yet to be revealed.

Previous years have seen some amazing artists take to the Big Weekend stage. Last year Billie Eilish performed, as well as Lewis Capaldi and Sam Fender, all of whom have tours running this year.

Eilish walked home with 5 Grammy awards last week, so it would not be a surprise if she appeared on the Radio 1 stage again this year. Taylor Swift has also been a part of the event before, and is planning quite a few festival appearances in 2020, which suggests the possibility of her headlining.

The event’s location changes every year – last year it was held in Middlesbrough, and before then, locations varied from Glasgow to Exeter. Fans will travel far and wide to watch, buying tickets as soon as they go on sale so as not to miss out.

In 2019 BBC said that there were 32,000 tickets available for each day, which all sold out. This year looks to be the same, possibly even more popular. However, for people who are unable to obtain tickets, the show will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 1.