Crowded House and Friends Celebrate Young Leaders at Global Citizen Nights

Melbourne, 6 March 2024 // Tonight, Melbourne played host to Global Citizen Nights, an unforgettable evening of music and storytelling that honoured five young leaders who have dedicated their lives to end extreme poverty across the Asia-Pacific region. The iconic Palais Theatre burst into colour, with a mix of incredible performances and powerful spoken word to shed light on the most pressing issues facing the region, including the climate crisis, inequity, food insecurity, and how these young leaders are making a difference in their communities.  

The spectacular night of advocacy, art and music was a fitting end to the Global Citizen NOW: Melbourne summit. For the last two days, international advocacy organisation Global Citizen has gathered leading voices and young innovators from across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond for a dynamic program focused on driving decisive action to end extreme poverty across the region and the world, as Australia hosted ASEAN leaders in Melbourne. 

As part of Global Citizen NOW: Melbourne, 32 young, innovative advocates from across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region, were honoured through the Youth Leaders Award program. Global Citizen Nights brought five of their stories to life.  

The show opened with a Welcome to Country, performed by Bunarong Elder Jungala Ellis, featuring Daen Ellis, and the Boonwurrung Welcome Song, performed by vocalist and composer Shauntai Sheree Abdul-Rahman. Global Citizen Nights was hosted by author, actress, and Miss Universe Australia 2020, Maria Thattil, and singer, actor and dancer, Hugh Sheridan. 

Go-Jo kicked the performances off with “Mrs Hollywood”, leading into the story of the first Global Citizen Youth Leader Noor Azizah, Co-Founder of the Rohingya Maìyafuìnor Collaborative Network, which was animated by silhouette, and followed by a moving dance performance choreographed by Mitchell Woodcock. Co-founder of Naarm Law Students on Voice and Global Citizen Youth Leader, Maggie Blanden’s story was played, animated with iconic First Nations landscapes, before proud Yuin and Thungutti man and rapper, Nooky took the stage, performing a powerful medley of “We are Warriors” and “Higher” with first nations supergroup 3%.

Animations of land and sea helped tell the story of Fijian Co-Founder of Precious Plastic and Global Citizen Youth Leaders Award winner, Raheed Roshan Ali, and Behani performed an upbeat version of Tracy Chapman’s, “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution”, which set the stage for the story of gender equality activist and Global Citizen Youth Leader, Devni Wimalasena, animated by colourscapes.

Multi-Aria award winning, Zambian singer-songwriter, Sampa the Great delivered a spectacular performance of her song, “Shadows” before Hugh Sheridan returned to the stage to welcome Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, to Global Citizen Nights, where she spoke about her time with the 32 Global Citizen Youth Leader Award winners, highlighting the work and mission of the remarkable young people to create advocacy and drive change. She then introduced the final Youth Leader story of Indonesian ocean advocate, Brigitta Gunawan, animated by Ocean Magic. Following the final story, the Mitchell Woodcock choreographed four-person dance troupe took the stage for an evocative dance performance.

Closing the evening with an electric set of their greatest hits, and introducing some brand new songs, was legendary, hometown band Crowded House. “I’m feeling inspired by a lot of young people in the house who are involved in advocating and inspiring people,” said Neil Finn, the group’s lead singer. “It’s an honour to be in your presence, and to play for you. I hope when you go back to where you came from, every piece of goodwill will flower for you. We believe in you. Go forth.”

32 young innovators from across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region were selected as Global Citizen Youth Leader Award winners from among hundreds of applicants. These inspiring awardees travelled to Melbourne to participate in a dynamic three days, alongside other awardees from across the region. They each received $5000 cash grants to further their vital work toward achieving one or more of the United Nations Global Goals. 

Global Citizen NOW: Melbourne is presented by the State Government of Victoria. Proud partners of Global Citizen NOW: Melbourne include Cisco, Citi and P&G. 

The Global Citizen NOW: Melbourne campaign and policy objectives are supported by the ASEAN Youth Agenda Indonesia 2023, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, Foreign Policy Community Indonesia, Oaktree, Rotary International, Safer World For All and Uniting to Combat NTDs. 

Global Citizen is grateful for the support of leading media companies including JCDecaux Australia, Motio, oOh!media, and QMS Media.

Visit globalcitizen.org/nights for more information.

Global Citizen acknowledges the Wurundjeri and Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation, the Traditional Owners of the unceded land on which Global Citizen NOW: Melbourne and Global Citizen Nights will be held, and pays respect to their Elders past, present and emerging

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