Ten years ago today, Gucci, together with co-founders Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and Salma Hayek Pinault, founded the Gucci CHIME campaign, dedicated to advancing gender equality around the world. To mark the occasion, Gucci hosted The Sound Of Change: Live, a global concert event on the first of June 2013 at Twickenham Stadium in London, to raise an alarm and call for global change. With a lineup including Beyoncé, Florence Welch, John Legend, Jennifer Lopez, and more, the concert was broadcast to one billion viewers, raising $3.9 million to support girls and women around the world.
The Sound Of Change: Live was the first global concert event to raise funds and awareness for gender equality, and the scale of the concert served as a harbinger for what was to come. 10 years on, Gucci CHIME has raised $21.5 million, which has impacted the lives of 635,000 girls and women globally through more than 500 projects in 92 countries through 185 non-profit partners.
To honour a decade of impact, Gucci has enlisted longtime Gucci CHIME advisory board member, collaborator, and Academy Award-winning director Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy to lens a 35-video-strong series that continues the mission of the campaign to convene, unite, and strengthen the voices speaking out for gender equality. The series documents a wide range of artists, activists, organisers, and advocates chiming in on what equality means to them. Raw, impassioned, and emotionally charged, the videos are punctuated with personal anecdotes from the participants on their life experiences and hopes for the future. The films will be available to stream on Gucci’s social channels and official YouTube account.
Gucci CHIME Co-founder Salma Hayek Pinault says, “While there have been some great advances in gender equality since we founded Chime 10 years ago, there is still a lot of work to be done. It has been incredible for me to have the opportunity to meet people around the world and see firsthand the impact the campaign has had on so many lives. I’m overwhelmed and inspired by how many people want to participate in the change, and I feel very hopeful for the future. It’s really a fight worth having, now, more than ever.”
Beyoncé’s Freedom—a rallying cry for racial equality from the Grammys most winning artist’s pioneering visual album Lemonade —scores the videos, in a nod to the Gucci CHIME co-founder’s enduring role in the groundbreaking campaign, and as a leading voice in the call for freedom and equality for all.
Returning to renew their support for Gucci CHIME and its mission are Salma Hayek Pinault, Florence Welch, Julia Roberts, and John Legend, who participated in the the campaign’s launch a decade ago. Newer Gucci faces such as Idris Elba, Julia Garner, Halle Bailey, Alia Bhatt, Serena Williams, and Jodie Turner-Smith join the voices calling for change. CHIME Advisory Board members Tanya Compas and Maryangel Garcia-Ramos, and activists Amanda Nguyen, Vee Kativhu, and Jaha Dukureh, among others, symbolise the brand’s continued commitment to championing the next generation of change.
Gucci President and CEO Marco Bizzarri also participates on behalf of the company’s 22,000 employees. “As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of Gucci CHIME, we reflect on the profound impact and influence the campaign has had on so many lives, through the tireless work and commitment of people around the world who fight for change every day. This is a journey that we embarked on ten years ago, but the work ahead of us is substantial. Today we recommit ourselves to the next decade of progress and positive change.”
The full list of participants is as follows: Aditi Mayer, Alia Bhatt, Amanda Nguyen, Annie Lennox, Ayaka Miyoshi, Ayshka Najib, Bethann Hardison, Cacille Ealy, Chiara Ferragni, Cindi Leive, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Diandra Marizet Esparza, Florence Welch, Halle Bailey, Idris Elba, Jaha Dukureh, Jodie Turner-Smith, John Legend, Julia Garner, Julia Roberts, Marco Bizzarri, Maryangel Garcia-Ramos, Mona Sinha, Neda Semnani, Paula Avila-Guillen, Sabrina Elba, Salma Hayek Pinault, Samira Nasr, Serena Williams, Sima Bahous, Sinéad Burke, Tanya Compas, Valkyrae, Vee Kativhu.
Director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy says: “The commitment of Gucci CHIME to amplify voices over the last decade speaks to me and my work. Each film in this new series is an important reminder of why we need to champion the voices of those who are working to create change. I hope this campaign will reinvigorate conversations around the world, so that everyone feels the urgency to contribute towards creating a more gender equal future.”
Gucci is also harnessing 10th anniversary of the Gucci CHIME campaign to renew its commitment to NGOs and grassroots organisations working to advance gender equality around the world. One such partnership is with UN Women’s Generation Action Coalitions, through which Gucci serves as the private sector lead on the action coalition dedicated to Feminist Movements & Leadership, a 5-year commitment. Among CHIME’s partners are the African American Policy Forum, the Center for Human Rights in Iran, Equality Now, Empowered by Vee, Exist Loudly, Formidable Joy, For the Gworls, Global Fund for Women, Intersectional Environmentalist, Italian organisations Associazione Artemisia, BEAWARENOW, Casa Internazionale delle Donne, Cooperativa E.V.A., Fondazione Una Nessuna e Centomila and SvS Donna Aiuta Donna with Cascina Ri-Nascita Project, the Kering Foundation, Mexicanas con Discapacidad, mothers2mothers, Ms. Foundation for Women, Outright International, Rise, Sad Girls Club, Samburu Girls Foundation, UN Women, in support of Generation Equality’s Action Coalition on Feminist Movements and Leadership, as well as locally with UN Women Brazil and UN Women Japan, Women Enabled International, Women for Afghan Women, and Young Feminist Europe.
The Gucci CHIME campaign is committed to supporting the most vulnerable women and girls around the world, such as disabled women and girls, indigenous women and girls, women and girls in the Global South, young feminists, trans and non-binary people, and refugee women. Gucci’s efforts provides funding to feminist organisations and activists including mutual aid and girl led projects, upholding feminist funding principles.
Gucci and its partners will celebrate 10 years of the CHIME campaign throughout 2023, and will continue to update the global Gucci CHIME community with more news regarding our mission to make meaningful change in the lives of girls and women the world over.
