Rocky Dawuni to play World Environment Day concert on 4 June

The event will mark this year’s WED, which is celebrated annually on 5 June. Dawuni, who is also a UN Goodwill Ambassador for the Environment for Africa, will be joined by big international artists such as Patti Smith, Ben Harper, Michael Stipe, Dave Mathews, Jack Johnson as well as leaders from around the world, including UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, among others.

The theme for 2021 is Ecosystem Restoration, and the ocassion will take place in Pakistan. The event will also see the launch of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration campaign. First held in 1974, WED is among the UN's key initiatives for encouraging awareness and action geared toward environmental protection. WED’s focus areas include marine pollution, human overpopulation, global warming, sustainable consumption and wildlife crime.

“Now more than ever, we need to make peace with nature. This is the moment for us all to come together and reimagine the world in which we live,” a statement by Dawuni reads. “Given the deep pain of the past year, this World Environment Day is a good time to revisit how we can move forward to restore our communities, our ecosystems, and our climate. We all have the power to inspire action, and we hope that through this virtual celebration, people around the globe will discover ways in which they can step up and take action. We cannot turn back time, but we can stop destructive investments, clean up our waterways, green our cities, invest in a renewable future and plant new seeds. The world is in dire need of repair, but the solutions already exist.”

Dawuni’s eloquence, cultural diplomacy and successful melding of music and activism are believed to have led him to become a passionate spokesperson for various global causes, most importantly the critical issues affecting our environment.

“It is critical that we consider the urgent needs of our planet as we transition back into living our lives and performing concerts again after a year of global quarantining and isolation,” Smith said. “We simply cannot go back to the way things were before. So much has been lost due to COVID-19, an immeasurable amount, and all the while, the climate crisis did not go away; it has always been there underneath the surface, existing every day among all of the other destruction and suffering. As we rebuild our world, we must make changes greater than ever before, and transition into a new era which favours our natural and wild places, and focuses deeply on protection and preservation.”

The WED concert will be broadcast live from 8pm CAT via the UN Environment Programme and Pathway to Paris Facebook pages here and here, respectively.

Meanwhile, Dawuni recently released a new EP Voice of Bunbon Vol. 1, which explores the diversity of his signature “Afro Roots” sound that modern and traditional musical trends in Ghana and across the continent. The songs that make up the EP range from acoustic to beat-driven anthems, as well as cultural explorations utilising aspects of Afrobeats, highlife, reggae, soul, pop and traditional African music.