Alicia Keys and Friends Join Global Citizen Festival’s Central Park Bill, Next to Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean’s Fugees Set

Central Park’s Great Lawn is getting a New York homecoming. Alicia Keys will bring “some incredible friends” for a special performance at the Global Citizen Festival on Saturday (Sept. 26), Global Citizen announced on Thursday (Sept. 10). Victoria Monét, Yeonjun of TOMORROW X TOGETHER and the Japanese rock icon Yoshiki joined the bill in the same update.

They arrive alongside a lineup that already had a 30th-anniversary headline moment: Ms. Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean performing the Fugees’ The Score, the 1996 album behind “Killing Me Softly,” “Fu-Gee-La” and “Ready or Not.” Lenny Kravitz, John Legend, Lainey Wilson, Shaboozey and TOMORROW X TOGETHER round out the music side, with Hugh Jackman hosting.

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Keys framed the return as personal. “There's nothing like standing on that Global Citizen stage in the middle of Central Park, in my city, with people who love the world enough to show up for it. Every time we come together something shifts,” she said in the announcement. She linked it to the People’s Bill of Rights 250: “Passing the mic. Making sure every voice gets heard, and giving people the power to shape what comes next.”

The festival is one of music’s most visible activism platforms, and its price of entry is action rather than money. Tickets are free and earned by completing actions on the Global Citizen app, and New Yorkers can also earn them by volunteering locally in September, with options including urban planting, beach cleanups and food donation. Partners include Bowery Mission, Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy and Pollinator Pathways.

The campaign behind the show has three targets: opportunities for 2 million children to go to school, support for 1.5 million smallholder farmers, and electricity for 2.5 million homes. “We’re thrilled to welcome this amazing lineup of artists from around the world who are generously donating their time to perform on the Global Citizen Festival stage,” said Katie Hill, Global Citizen’s chief music and entertainment officer.

The Thursday update also added a guest list: Bill Nye, Jordan Fisher, Katie Couric, Marcus Samuelsson, Naomi Watanabe, Nomzamo Mbatha and Vladimir Duthiers will make appearances, joining Rachel Brosnahan and Gayle King. Hill’s September is full: two days later she sat in the audience at Kai Cenat’s first Vivet runway show.

Next stop is Saturday, Sept. 26, on the Great Lawn, where Hill and Jean will close the loop on The Score at 30.

Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.