Doja Cat Dazzles at Homecoming Move Afrika: Pretoria Show, Celebrating Her South African Roots

Written By Global Citizen

Global Citizen’s Move Afrika Tour Marks Its Third Year Pioneering Africa’s Touring Circuit for International Artists, in Partnership With pgLang and Kendrick Lamar

Summary

This Year’s Move Afrika Tour Increases Job Opportunities for Young People, Drives Local Investments and Employs Close to 100 Percent Local Crews in Kigali and Pretoria

Friday March 20, 2026

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Pretoria, March 20, 2026 // Tonight, Global Citizen’s pioneering Move Afrika tour made its debut in South Africa with Move Afrika: Pretoria, a spectacular evening of music, celebration and citizen-led advocacy. Headlined by Doja Cat, the Grammy® award-winning superstar honoured her South African roots with a powerful homecoming performance. This year marked the third instalment of Move Afrika, an ambitious initiative pioneering a Pan-African music touring circuit for international artists, with plans to further expand across the continent next year.

Doja Cat gave the sold-out Move Afrika: Pretoria crowd an unforgettable night, performing some of her greatest hits, including ‘Paint The Town Red’, ‘Woman’, ‘Kiss Me More’, ‘Agora Hills,’ and ‘Gorgeous’. “For a place I've never been to, it feels like I've been here before. That’s what’s special about South Africa,” she said. “I want to say thank you to everyone here tonight, this is bigger than us, it's bigger than me. I want to say thank you to Global Citizen. This is one of the most fun shows I've ever done and so grateful that it was here. Thank you everybody, your energy was perfect… I love you.” Move Afrika: Pretoria also featured performances by South African artist The Joy, and musician and dancer Moonchild Sanelly.

“The launch of Move Afrika in Pretoria marks a powerful step forward in our mission to pioneer a touring circuit for international artists across the continent. Now in our third year, the tour continues to scale, creating even more employment and upskilling opportunities for Africa’s emerging generation, and we are excited to further expand Move Afrika across the continent next year,” said Hugh Evans, Co-Founder & CEO, Global Citizen. “Thanks to our partnership with the wonderful team at pgLang, we are now seeing global superstars like Doja Cat celebrate their roots alongside incredible African talent like Moonchild Sanelly and ‘The Joy’ that reflects the continent's energy. Move Afrika is about more than just unforgettable performances; it focuses on creating jobs in the creative sector and we are proud that since we launched in 2023, over 3000 job opportunities have been created.” 

While the continent’s music scenes continue to attract global audiences, there remains a shortage of trained local technical crews capable of supporting large-scale international tours. Global Citizen’s Move Afrika and its partner programmes aim to bridge that gap by building a new generation of African production and event professionals. Launched in 2023, Move Afrika is a long-term effort to pioneer the music touring circuit for international artists across the continent by driving investments, expanding infrastructure, creating local jobs, and generating upskilling and entrepreneurship opportunities, all building local capacity within host cities and showcasing the best of African creative talent to the world.

As part of the 2026 Move Afrika tour, Global Citizen has expanded its job and upskilling opportunities for young people in Rwanda and South Africa. The programmes form part of the broader vision behind Move Afrika, that aims to demonstrate how world-class entertainment can also serve as a catalyst for economic opportunities for young people. Since 2023, Move Afrika has created over 3000 job opportunities across Kigali, Lagos and Pretoria.

In addition, the 2026 edition of Move Afrika builds on last year’s citizen-led advocacy campaign calling for stronger health systems across Africa. Harnessing the power of live music to grow the creator economy while advancing access to healthcare, Global Citizen campaigned alongside local partners ahead of each event to urge African nations to strengthen primary care, sexual and reproductive health and rights, invest in health resilience, and reduce financial barriers to public health. 

In partnership with the Rwanda Development Board, the Ministry of Health Rwanda, the Ministry of Youth and Arts Rwanda, Imbuto Foundation, and HDI Rwanda, Global Citizen hosted a transformative youth healthcare event, “Your Health. Your Choice. Your Future,” in the lead up to Move Afrika: Kigali. The event brought together over three hundred young people in an interactive forum designed to equip adolescents with practical knowledge about their health, relationships, while addressing challenges facing many young people today, including barriers to accessing reliable sexual and reproductive health information and services. 

In South Africa 

This year, Move Afrika took the groundbreaking step of delivering a world-class show in collaboration with local South African partner Big Concerts. Move Afrika: Pretoria was delivered by 100 percentlocal crew and equipment, demonstrating South Africa’s continent-leading role in delivering world class productions. Local vendor, Mushroom Productions, partnered with Global Citizen to make Move Afrika: Pretoria possible. Specific examples of investments made in the job creation and skills development for young people this year included:

  • Production Crew Student Training: As part of the South African leg of the tour, Move Afrika launched a Youth Technical Production Pathway, in partnership with Gearhouse South Africa Group and the Gearhouse Kentse Mpahlwa Academy. Ten young people from Johannesburg and Pretoria aged 18- 26 were given hands-on training in lighting, audio-visual systems, and stage rigging. Experience working on the build for Doja Cat’s Move Afrika: Pretoria show gave the group on-site exposure to the logistics and technical execution of a large-scale concert of world-class production quality. The programme is a pathway to accredited technical training and long-term careers in live event production.

In Rwanda 

At the first stop on the tour earlier this week in Rwanda, Move Afrika: Kigali, in association with global production company Done and Dusted and the Rwanda Events Group, increased its local crew and production roles from 75 percent in 2023 to nearly 100 percent in 2026. The production was supported by a small team of international specialists providing training and technical guidance, highlighting Rwanda’s continued progress toward becoming a world-class event destination. Specific examples of production investments in Rwanda this year included: 

  • First Aid and Security: Move Afrika: Kigali continued to train local private security teams. A collaborative approach between local private security firm Crowd Minders and Global Citizen's Safety & Security training team resulted in a bespoke programme delivered by Cohort Security Group to over 112 personnel including event staff, supervisors, managers and pit supervisors, covering pit training, backstage security protocols, and scene management, all aligned with international standards.

  • Technical Production: Thanks to Rwanda Events Group this year’s edition prioritised locally-sourced technical production and crew. 100 percent of the stage was provided locally. Including 880 LED panels, it was one of the most ambitious productions ever staged in Rwanda. Audio and lighting fixtures were 98 percent locally sourced, rigging was 95 percent provided locally and installed alongside partners from the UK's Unusual Rigging. Building upon collaborations established in 2023, local crew members worked with teams from PRG and Done+Dusted across a range of disciplines, moving the local events industry in a new and exciting direction.

  • Hospitality and Events Trainees: This year Global Citizen further expanded its partnership with the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator to launch an enhanced Youth Engagement, Skills-Sharing and Job Opportunity Programme. Over the past three years, 120 young people from Rwanda aged 18-25 have trained as part of the programme, gaining experience and industry exposure in the fast-growing event production, hospitality, creative and live events sectors. As part of the enhanced programme, female-led enterprise The Financial Boutique employed five youth ambassadors from the Move Afrika programme in paid operational roles including project management, events assistants and data capturers. 

Partners of Move Afrika include pgLang, Major Tour Partner Cisco, Rwanda Development Board, Big Concerts, and Heineken. 2026 Move Afrika: Pretoria was also co-produced by Kweku Mandela, who played an important role in co-creating Move Afrika.

Global Citizen is grateful for the support of leading media companies including: BellaNaija, EIB Network, Rolling Stone Africa, TIME Africa, TimesLIVE and Vanguard Media.

Move Afrika sets a new gold-standard for entertainment touring events on the continent, increasing demand from international and regional artists to tour in the region and building local capacity within host cities. The tour will continue to expand annually, with additional countries joining the circuit as Move Afrika scales across the continent over the next five years.

The 2026 installment of Move Afrika builds on Global Citizen’s previous campaigns and events across Africa, including the 2025 installment of Move Afrika: Kigali and Move Afrika: Lagos, headlined by John Legend; the inaugural 2023 edition of Move Afrika: Rwanda, headlined by Kendrick Lamar; Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100, which featured Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Ed Sheeran, Usher, Eddie Vedder, and Chris Martin of Coldplay in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2018; Global Citizen Live: Lagos, with performances by Davido, Femi Kuti, and Tiwa Savage at Fela Kuti’s New Afrika Shrine in 2021; and Global Citizen Festival: Accra, which brought Usher, SZA, Stormzy, and TEMS to the Black Star Square in 2022.


For more information visit moveafrika.org.

About Global Citizen 

Global Citizen is the world’s leading international advocacy organisation on a mission to end extreme poverty NOW. Powered by a worldwide community of everyday activists raising their voices and taking action, the movement is amplified by campaigns and events that convene leaders in music, entertainment, public policy, media, philanthropy and the corporate sector. Since the movement began, $49 billion in commitments announced on Global Citizen platforms has been deployed, impacting 1.3 billion lives. Established in Australia in 2008, Global Citizen’s team operates from New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Berlin, Geneva, Melbourne, Toronto, Johannesburg, Lagos and beyond. Join the movement at globalcitizen.org, download the Global Citizen app, and follow Global Citizen on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, X and LinkedIn. 

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Doja Cat Performs First Ever Show in Africa at Global Citizen’s Move Afrika: Kigali