LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – JANUARY 07: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex leave after their visit to Canada House in thanks for the warm Canadian hospitality and support they received during their recent stay in Canada, on January 7, 2020 in London, England. (Photo by DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS – WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Global Citizen has announced Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex as Campaign Chairs of VAX LIVE: The Concert to Reunite the World, a campaign calling on businesses to donate dollars for doses, G7 governments to share excess doses immediately, and for pharma companies to make vaccines available at not-for-profit prices.

VAX LIVE will take place on Sunday, 2 May at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The first large-scale music event to be held for a COVID-compliant audience of fully-vaccinated frontline workers, VAX LIVE will be used to call on governments, the private sector and philanthropists to commit towards securing the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. The event will air Saturday, May 8, 2021 on MultiChoice’s 1Magic and on the SABC’s Channel S3 in South Africa, which broadcasts throughout Africa, and livestream on YouTube.

Multi-platinum recording artist, actress and producer, Selena Gomez, will host the event which will be headlined by a multinational line-up that will include South Africa’s very own Nomzamo Mbatha who will be joined by Jennifer Lopez, Eddie Vedder, Foo Fighters, Ben Affleck, Chrissy Teigen, David Letterman, Gayle King, Jimmy Kimmel, Olivia Munn, and Sean Penn.

Also, there will be a special appearance by President Biden, First Dr. Jill Biden and Vice President Harris as part of Global Citizen’s partnership with the White House’s “We Can Do This” initiative to increase public confidence in COVID-19 vaccines while reinforcing basic prevention measures, such as mask wearing and social distancing.

Additionally, President Macron of France, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, and Prime Minister Plenković of Croatia will make appearances.

The event will be pre-recorded and will be broadcast and streamed on Saturday, 8 May on a number of channels and radio stations in the US, Brazil and Colombia, as well as on MultiChoice’s 1Magic and on the SABC’s Channel S3 in South Africa and on which airs throughout Africa. Global Citizen’s exclusive streaming partner, YouTube, will stream an extended 90-minute version of the event on the Global Citizen channel, starting at 20:00 ET (02:00 CAT). This will include additional performances and appearances by NCT 127 and Picture This, as well as by YouTube’s creators, Daniel El Travieso, Kati Morton, ShootforLove, Thembe Mahlaba and The Try Guys.

As part of VAX LIVE, Global Citizen is campaigning to support the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) initiative – including COVAX – a vaccine-sharing program co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO), to ensure global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. During the special, Global Citizen will call on governments asking them to pledge a total of $19 billion, the outstanding balance needed by the ACT-A to get 1.8 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses plus tests and treatments to the world’s poorest countries by the end of 2021.

“Over the past year, our world has experienced pain, loss, and struggle—together. Now we need to
recover and heal—together. We can’t leave anybody behind. We will all benefit, we will all be safer,
when everyone everywhere has equal access to the vaccine. We must pursue equitable vaccine
distribution, and in that, restore faith in our common humanity. This mission couldn’t be more critical or important,” said Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Campaign Chairs of VAX LIVE.