Oprah Winfrey presents and Gwen Stefani performs during Global Citizen Prize

Global Citizen recognized individuals making ‘extraordinary efforts for the world’s most vulnerable’ during a virtual award ceremony on Saturday night.   

Hosted by John Legend, the hour-long event aired on NBC and featured a slew of star-studded performances and appearances by the likes of Gwen Stefani, Oprah Winfrey, and more. 

Winfrey, 66, had the honor of presenting the Citizen Of The Year prize to attorney Bryan Stevenson for his incredible work with the Equal Justice Initiative and for his dedication to public education on the history of racial discrimination. 

Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative in 1989, which works to ‘end mass incarceration, excessive punishment, and racial inequality.’ 

‘We will never prevail in changing the world if we only do things that are comfortable & convenient,’ said Oprah, who marveled at Stevenson’s dedication to creating a more equitable world.

Winfrey delivered her heartfelt speech before a desk, while donning lavender toned sweater and a pair of glasses. 

Amidst the honors, audiences at home were treated to an array of jaw-dropping performances, including a performance by the one-and-only Gwen Stefani.

The No Doubt front woman, 51, opened the show by belting out the lyrics to her infectious new hit Let Me Reintroduce Myself, which hit streaming platforms earlier this month.

Surrounded by candy canes and her socially-distanced band, Stefani graced the stage in an oversized rhinestone-covered jacket and a pair of black patent leather thigh-high boots.

Hidden beneath her houndstooth outerwear was a matching high-waisted skirt and a silky black bralette.

Gwen’s lengthy bleach blonde hair was styled into a chic ponytail and her eyelids were decked out with glitzy shadows. 

Tori Kelly was joined by fellow vocalist JoJo as the pair delivered a goosebump-inducing cover of Aretha Franklin’s 1967 hit (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.

Kelly, 28, rocking her head of wild blonde curls, stunned in a tan turtleneck, which she tucked into a silky gold skirt that stopped at her knees.

The Dear No One songstress finished off her look with a pair of large gold earrings and an array of matching bangles.

Keeping with their performance’s color palette, JoJo, 30, showcased her ample assets in a velvet cowl neck top and a pair of ivory toned cargo pants.

The What U Need singer wore her auburn hair in a variety of loose curls that flowed down her chest from a neat middle part.

As if hosting were not enough to tucker someone out, John Legend also performed during the hour-long show with his Academy Award-winning collaborator Common and country music superstar Carrie Underwood.

Legend, 41, sat down at the piano and pounded the keys to the tune of his and Common’s anthemic ballad Glory, which was the theme for the 2014 film Selma. 

Common, 48, delivered his powerful verses with mic in hand as footage from recent Black Lives Matter protests played out on screen.

Returning to the piano in a gorgeous gold embellished suit jacket, John and Carrie performed their recent collaboration titled Hallelujah.

Underwood, with her blonde hair styled in glamorous waves, donned a black, floor-length gown that was doused in silver accents.

The 38-year-old American Idol alum’s elegant garment also featured a mesh upper half for modesty.

Carrie and John, harmonizing flawlessly, were surrounded by a countless glitter-drenched Christmas trees as they sang.

A plethora of awards were given out to activists, philanthropists, and leaders around the world on Saturday night, including the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, 62, who received the World Leader prize.

Game Of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, 50, lent his presence to the ceremony and sat down with Ursula for a socially-distanced interview.

Miley Cyrus had to the honor of presenting Elton John with Global Citizen’s ‘Artist Of The Year’ prize for using his ‘creative platform to improve the world.’

Specifically, the 73-year-old was celebrated for launching the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which has since gone on to raise ‘more than $450 million’ since 1992.

The funds go towards efforts to help improve HIV/AIDS testing and treatments, as well as education around the illness to eliminate the stigma surrounding it.

‘Elton, thank you so much for allowing me to be here and talk about the Elton John AIDS foundation’ said Cyrus as she beamed into the event from her music studio in Los Angeles.

After Elton thanked her for ‘all [she] has done for the foundation’ over the years, the Miley, 28, asked the music legend to ‘walk’ the audience through the ‘atmosphere’ of the AIDS crisis ‘that led to the establishment of the Elton John AIDS foundation.’    

‘Well, it was awful. During the 1980s it was the gay plague and it took a young boy to bring people’s attention to it, and Ryan was an enormous tipping point for the disease,’ began Elton, referencing to the late Ryan White, who was diagnosed with AIDS following a blood transfusion.

Elton said that ‘things began to change’ after the world learned of White’s story and witnessed his unfathomable courage.

The Tiny Dancer singer explained that although he ‘did a couple of benefits’ and ‘made a record with Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight’ to help educate others on the crisis, he really did not feel that he did ‘enough as a gay man’ at the time.

‘I should have been there, I should have marched. I should have been much more political than I was. So many of my friends died, so many of my friends had HIV and AIDS.’

It was when Elton got sober in 1990 that he ‘realized [he] wanted to make a difference not just for gay people but for everybody,’ so established the Elton John AIDS foundation. 

‘As the disease has evolved, we changed from, you know, being a direct care foundation to mothers to child transmission to orphan care to targeting marginalized groups all over the world, and now we’ve got a COVID emergency fund to cope with both pandemics at once,’ he explained to Cyrus, adding that the foundation’s moto is: ‘Nobody gets left behind.’

Elton told Miley that receiving the Global Citizen ‘Artist Of The Year’ prize ‘mean so much’ to him because he is ‘so grateful that people know about the Elton John AIDS Foundation and consider it a wonderful organization to contribute to and to work with.’

But, for John, the award also reminds him of ‘all the work yet to do’ and that the foundation has it’s foot on the accelerator and [they] cannot take it off.’

He also noted that the Elton John AIDS Foundation ‘needs’ young people, like Cyrus, because ‘young people are the future of the world.’ 

‘If I’ve got you by my side, then I think we can beat this,’ said the Grammy Award-winner sweetly, to which Miley replied: ‘Thank you so much! Thank you for all of your work thank you for inspiring me!’

Nick Jonas’s stunning wife Priyanka Chopra appeared to present the Leadership And Philanthropy prize to Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, 90. 

‘He isn’t just committed to leaving the world better than he found it, he leaves people better than he found them, too,’ said the 38-year-old actress of Buffet.

Katie Couric, also partaking in a socially-distanced interview presented LifeBank founder Temie Giwa-Tubosun with the year’s Business Leader prize.

‘Temie created an extraordinary organization called LifeBank, using mapping technology to source and deliver essential medical products to African hospitals,’ explained Legend before handing the mic to Couric. 

John Oliver engaged in an adorable back-and-forth with Sesame Street’s very own Elmo in order to present the Sesame Workshop with the prize for Culture and Education.

John Legend and Common, in the midst of the powerful performance of Glory, presented the Black Lives Matter movement, represented by it’s co-founders Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi, with the prize for Activism.

Following his introduction from Oprah, Citizen Of The Year award recipient Bryan Stevenson was interviewed by Usher about his impactful work. 

Nick Jonas revealed the winner of this year’s Cisco Youth Leadership Award, which is an award voted by the people and aimed at celebrating ‘young people working to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges.’  

‘Hundreds of people entered to have their work and passion recognized congratulations to all of you and the work that you’re doing. I am blown away, truly but it’s time to call a winner,’ said the 28-year-old musician, before naming Christelle Kwizera as this year’s winner.

The 25-year-old Rwandan mechanical engineer received a grand prize of $250,000.