Andrea Bocelli, Pharrell Williams to direct Vatican concert for human fraternity

Vatican City, Aug 29, 2025 / 11:51 am (CNA).

Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and American songwriter Pharrell Williams will direct a concert featuring musicians John Legend, Teddy Swims, Jelly Roll, Karol G, BamBam, and Angélique Kidjo in St. Peter’s Square next month.

The Sept. 13 concert, which is free and open to the public, will also include a drone light show and talks on themes including peace, justice, food, freedom, and humanity.

Called “Grace for the World,” the show will close the third edition of the World Meeting on Human Fraternity, organized by the Fratelli Tutti Foundation and St. Peter’s Basilica, and will be preceded by roundtables on social issues in Rome and Vatican City on Sept. 12–13.

Pope Francis established the Fratelli Tutti Foundation at the end of 2021. It is named after his 2020 encyclical on fraternity and social friendship, which expanded on themes in the “Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,” signed with Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, grand imam of Al-Azhar, in Abu Dhabi in 2019.

The final event of the World Meeting on Human Fraternity 2025 is intended “to communicate to the whole world, with a symbolic embrace, the joy of fraternal love,” Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, president of the Fratelli Tutti Foundation and archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, said at an Aug. 29 press conference at the Vatican.

Gambetti said organizers tried to “broaden our international scope” with the choice of music artists.

In the press conference, the cardinal said Karol G — a Grammy-winning Colombian reggaeton and urban pop artist — was asked to take part because she is Latin American and “because she is involved in important social work” with women and children. “It seemed relevant to the theme we are trying to address,” Gambetti said.

Prominent U.S. artists will also take the stage in front of the Vatican basilica: rapper Jelly Roll and singer-songwriters John Legend, Teddy Swims, and Pharrell Williams.

Thai rapper BamBam, who is also a member of the South Korean boy band Got7, will perform, as well as Angélique Kidjo, a Beninese-French singer, actress, and activist. The concert will also feature the choir of the Diocese of Rome and the Voices of Fire Gospel choir.

Andrea Bocelli, who has performed in St. Peter’s Square on previous occasions, shared in a video message Aug. 29 that his participation in the concert is “a great honor.”

“I sincerely hope that it will truly succeed in spreading, in everyone’s hearts, a sense of brotherhood and great humanity, which is so badly needed,” the world-famous singer added.

The World Meeting on Human Fraternity 2025 will start with a meeting with Pope Leo XIV on Sept. 12. The program will then focus on roundtables on topics including artificial intelligence, education, economics, literature, children, health, and the environment. 

Sept. 13 will include an assembly on the topic of “What It Means to Be a Human Today” and a visit to St. Peter’s Basilica and the Holy Door of the Jubilee of Hope.

“While the world suffers from wars, loneliness, even new poverty, we have decided to stop and ask ourselves what it means to be human today,” Father Francesco Occhetta, SJ, Fratelli Tutti Foundation secretary-general, said Aug. 29.

“It is not an easy question, it even seems a little naive, but it is the only one that can save us if we ask it together,” he added.

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/266259/andrea-bocelli-pharrell-williams-to-direct-vatican-concert-for-human-fraternity