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Seventeen 'honored, humbled, and overwhelmed' as they become UNESCO's first-ever Goodwill Ambassador for Youth
K-pop megastars Seventeen said Wednesday they were honoured to be named UNESCO goodwill ambassadors on Wednesday.
"We are humbled and overwhelmed to stand before you for the first time as UNESCO's goodwill ambassadors for youth," said Seventeen member Joshua Hong at the Paris headquarters of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
"It is a great honour to be representing today's young people which is a priority group for UNESCO," he said, adding that the boy band would donate £1 million to a UNESCO youth grant scheme for creative projects.
UNESCO director-general Audrey Azoulay said the partnership with Seventeen "will add a tremednous momentum to our efforts".
"They will be a fantastic bridge between us, UNESCO, our values, what we stand for, our aim for peace, and young people," she added.
News of Seventeen becoming UNESCO ambassadors was first reported earlier this month with Azoulay, saying "Seventeen and UNESCO share the same commitment to empowering young people to drive change and address the challenges of our century."
They will officially take on their UNESCO functions — which involve promoting youth-focused projects around the world -- in a ceremony at its Paris headquarters on June 26.
The 13-strong South Korean band founded in 2015, were second only to Taylor Swift for global revenue last year, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
They also topped the IFPI album charts in 2023 with "FML" and have racked up billions of streams online.
The group has already been working with the organisation less formally and performed at the UNESCO Paris office in November. Other current ambassadors include Brazilian footballer Vinicius, actors Rossi de Palma and Forest Whitaker, and Italian-Argentinian chef Mauro Colagreco.
— Agence France-Presse, with reports from Lou Albano, GMA Integrated News
