Pharrell Williams to curate new wave of Live Earth gigs

Pharrell Williams is set to gather music stars from around the world to perform a second series of Live Earth gigs on all seven continents.

The Happy hitmaker announced the news during an appearance at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday (21Jan15) alongside former Vice President Al Gore.

Organisers hope to stage Live Earth shows on all seven continents, including Antarctica, on 18 June (15) and broadcast them to an estimated TV audience of two billion.

Williams, who has been named creative director, was involved in organising the previous Live Earth shows in 2007 and he insists they plan to learn from the past and put on an even better spectacle this year (15).

He told the audience at the conference, "Instead of just having people perform, we literally are going to have humanity harmonise all at once... (At the previous shows) you would have pundits and comedians who didn't understand global warming and we were often ridiculed. We wanted to do something very different this time."

The concerts will feature 100 artists across the seven shows with each event lasting up to six hours.

Performers have yet to be announced, but artists featured at the 2007 gigs included Kanye West, Bon Jovi, The Police, Rihanna, Genesis, the Black Eyed Peas, Metallica and the Beastie Boys.