Department of State and YouTube Announce Global Music Partnership, New Roster of U.S. Global Music Ambassadors

U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and YouTube’s Global Head of Music Lyor Cohen announced today a new Department of State-YouTube partnership in support of the Department’s Global Music Diplomacy Initiative, a worldwide effort to elevate music as a diplomatic platform to promote peace and democracy in support of the United States’ broader foreign policy goals. At the core of the partnership is a roster of U.S. Global Music Ambassadors, which builds on the legacy of the iconic Jazz Ambassadors of the 1950s and 1960s and promotes peace across generations of people worldwide.

The U.S. Global Music Ambassadors represent a new generation of American music artists, ranging from emerging artists to established icons and everyone in-between, who promote peace through their work and engagement. The following American music artists, who have demonstrated excellence in their field and a commitment to promoting peace, will serve as U.S. Global Music Ambassadors. They are Chuck D, Grace Bowers, BRELAND, Kane Brown, Herbie Hancock, Denyce Graves, Jelly Roll, Teddy Swims, Justin Tranter, Armani White, and Lainey Wilson.

In addition to the new U.S. Global Music Ambassadors, the Department and YouTube will join efforts to enhance English language learning through music and across the YouTube platform. This new partnership will support opportunity and equity in the creative economy through in-country engagements with audiences and aspiring creators — beginning in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, and India. It will offer micro-grants to State Department exchange program alumni around the world who use music as a means to expand access to education, economic opportunity and equity, and inclusion. And it will raise even greater awareness and inspire action globally around the unifying power of music, during global moments, such as the G20 meetings in Brazil later this year.

This new partnership was catalyzed by the bipartisan Promoting Peace, Education, And Cultural Exchange (PEACE) Through Music Diplomacy Act signed by President Biden into law, which called on the Department to create public-private partnerships with American companies and nonprofits to use music to meet the moment, convey American leadership globally, and create connections with people worldwide. As part of the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative, the partnership builds on a vast array of public diplomacy exchanges and programs that promote peace and create cross-cultural connections in support of broader U.S. foreign policy goals. Learn more about the Department’s music diplomacy efforts, visit www.state.gov/music-diplomacy or contact [email protected].