Beyonce Joins Jay Z, No Doubt, and Gwen Stefani To Help End World Poverty

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Something special happens to this city when New Yorkers come together. It can be felt on Marathon Sunday, on New Years Eve, on Gay Pride, and it was absolutely felt at last night’s Global Citizen Festival concert in Central Park. Everyone from Olivia Wilde to Jessica Alba to Meryl Streep to Alison Williams to countless international dignitaries came out to to raise awareness and help end extreme poverty around the world.

And that’s not counting the musical guests. Carrie Underwood, Sting, No Doubt, and Jay Z all performed to a crowd of nearly 50,000. Jay Z was the closing act and had the crowd in a frenzy and then, yep, Beyonce appeared. She wore super high-waisted skinny black trousers and a lace blouse that apparently had malfunctioning buttons: halfway through her first dance the blouse blew open, exposing her bra. But of course, Queen B handled the situation with grace, perfectly covering her décolletage with one hand while continuing to sing Justin Timberlake’s part from “Magna Carta.”

While performing, Jay Z asked the audience to lift up a lighter or cellphone, and once they did, he said, “Wow, that’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.” Indeed, seeing the Great Lawn filled with thousands of tiny lights while Beyonce and Jay Z sing “Forever Young” was a sight to behold. But despite the evening’s glossy veneer, the words of Indian president Pranab Mukherjee from earlier in the night rang true: “The most important thing is to turn your thought into action.”