Swedish activist Greta Thunberg kicked off a global climate concert by "Rickrolling" in the name of climate activism and received a vote of approval from Rick Astley himself.
Taking the stage in Stockholm, Thunberg performed Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" with Fridays for Future's Andreas Magnusson as they opened up the youth-led global series of concerts on Saturday, Climate Live 2021. The video of them on stage was posted to Climate Live’s TikTok account.
On Sunday, Astley posted on his Twitter the video of Thunberg killing it on stage, calling her dance moves and song performance "fantastic."
“Rickrolling” has been blowing up as a widespread internet meme that involves an unexpected and out-of-context appearance of Astley's 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
Thunberg’s concert was a play on the meme that drove the audience crazy as the video showed people loudly cheering her one. Her performance also marked the first of 19 concerts set to raise awareness and put pressure on world leaders ahead of COP26, a United Nations climate conference set to start at the end of October in Glasgow.
Pressure from Thunberg and other climate advocates have been mounting ahead of the U.N. conference. U.K. Environmental Agency on Wednesday warned of further flooding and droughts if world leaders fail to implement stricter climate mitigation measures.
“It is adapt or die,” the agency’s chair Emma Howard Boyd said in a report to the British government.
