Pharrell Partners With United Nations for International Happy Day
by Jon Blistein
After years of high-profile musical collaborations, Pharrell Williams has partnered with the United Nations to, fittingly, promote the organization’s International Day of Happiness, held each year on March 20th.
A Call to Arms: An Invitation to Demand Action on Climate Change
Specifically, Pharrell will be using his post to further raise awareness of climate change issues ahead of the UN’s conference on the subject in Paris this December. Compounding his duties as Creative Director of Live Earth, he’ll be encouraging people to sign the eco group’s petition urging global leaders to adopt a new climate accord, with the hopes of garnering 1 billion signatures before the conference.
Furthermore, the musician will spread the joy by inviting people to join a "Global Happy Party" by uploading pictures of themselves, which will then be combined into a massive animated .gif set to the musician’s smash, “Happy.”
"In a year where there is so much turmoil in the world, from social conflict to climate change, we need moments to stop and celebrate happiness," Pharrell said in a statement. "Protecting our planet is fundamental to the pursuit of human happiness and that is why we have chosen to support Live Earth’s movement to raise a billion voices for climate action. We believe that happiness can change the world."
Pharrell has also curated a special mixtape for Internet radio service Pandora to promote the movement. The sprawling collection is available to stream now and boasts tunes from Daft Punk, Michael Jackson, Fleetwood Mac, Weezer, Kanye West, Missy Elliott, Ray Charles and more.
Earlier this week, John Legend, Ed Sheeran, Cody Simpson, David Guetta, James Blunt and Charlize Theron joined forces with the United Nations to create “the world’s happiest playlist” and launching its weeklong #happysoundslike campaign.
Pharrell’s partnership with Live Earth — co-founded by Al Gore and Kevin Wall — was announced in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. To further raise awareness of climate change and the Paris conference, Gore, Wall and Williams announced they would revive the Live Earth concert, which first took place in 2007 in 11 cities around the globe. While no artists have been announced for the 2015 edition, Live Earth will return on June 18th with concerts scheduled to take place in New York, South Africa, Australia, China, Brazil and Paris.
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