Solberg shared stage with Shakira in Hamburg

Hamburg,Germany. Prime Minister Erna Solberg.Photo: Tore Meek / NTB scanpix

Solberg shared stage with Shakira in Hamburg

 

Along with stars like Shakira and Coldplay, Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Høyre (H) took the stage during a charity concert on the occasion of the G20 summit in Hamburg.

However, widespread demonstrations in the city led the Norwegian delegation to wait in the arena until German police could get a safe route back to the hotel.


Solberg emphasized youth and education when she held her appeal at the ‘Global Citizen Festival’ on Thursday evening.


‘We must invest in youth worldwide. All children and young people have the right to free education, and good education’, said the prime minister.


From the stage in Hamburg, she also announced that Norway will provide another 85 million, on top of NOK 700 million, as aid for women and girls’ health.


Solberg said that the UN’s education goals must be reached, and she stressed that Norway has therefore doubled the funding for global education, which has the highest priority amongst causes given Norwegian aid. She encouraged the G20 Summit to increase support for education.


She closed the appeal by saying “Danke Schön” before she left the stage where artists like Coldplay, Shakira and Ellie Goulding performed on the same evening.


Before the concert, Solberg met with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who also held an appeal. He brought up equality, and said, among other things, ‘equal rights for women and girls can change the world’.


Like several heads of state, Solberg arrived in Hamburg on Thursday, the day before the G20 meeting begins. Earlier in the day she visited the Norwegian Naval Church in the city.


Many commentators have speculated on why it is always artists such as Ellie Goulding, Coldplay, and Shakira who play at these kind of events, as they are also, invariably, the same artists most prone to covering one eye with a hand, showing a horned hand, giving the ‘shh’ silence sign when photographers are present, and generally mixing socially and professionally with other artists who do the same thing.

As these artists demonstrably share zero solidarity with demonstrators, large segments of the youth public, internationally, have expressed misgivings over this secretive signalling of confederacy, and what might be the cause of it.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today