Eddie Vedder, left, and Chris Martin perform at the Global Citizen Festival in New York., Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016.
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Now that Julia Gillard and Rihanna are confirmed BFFs, it’s only natural for the politician and the pop star to take to stage and make it all gloriously official.
The 24-year-old singer took the stage at the Global Citizen Festival in NY on Saturday, where she didn’t just join the organization’s fight against poverty, she promoted a cause of her own.
Coldplay frontman Chris Martin was the night’s unexpected VIP: After joining Pearl Jam to cover Patti Smith’s “People Have the Power”, he covered Prince’s “Raspberry Beret” and freestyled through ditties about why Rihanna could possibly be late to her own headlining set.
Their charity union was revealed on Friday, New York time, when Rihanna’s role as new ambassador for the Global Partnership for Education was announced via Twitter. The concert will also be streamed via YouTube at YouTube.com/GlobalCitizen.
According to a statement by the GPE, “the partnership will advocate for the rights of the over quarter of a billion children and young people who are not in school today and an estimated 330 million who are in school but not learning”.
“I feel strongly that all children everywhere should be afforded the opportunity of a quality education”, Rihanna said in a statement. As part of her new role, through her Clara Lionel Foundation, she will work with officials at the Global Partnership for Education and Global Citizen to ensure 250 million children in the poorest areas of the world are granted access to schooling.
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Watch highlights from the Global Citizen Festival below.
