Tonight at the Royal Albert Hall, the likes of Jameela Jamil, Dawn O’Porter, Dermot O’Leary, Labrinth and Mabel will be coming together for a special concert as the charity celebrates a decade of work, at a time when it is needed more than ever.
Born in 2015 from a group of friends who needed to act - Josie Naughton, O’Porter and Iliana Bird - Choose Love has become a global humanitarian organisation and a brave new voice for change, loved by the public and celebrities alike, known for their iconic Katherine Hamnett designed t-shirt worn by everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Julia Roberts.
Over the past 10 years, Choose Love has supported over 8.5 million vulnerable people across the world, and provided 1.3 million with access to life-saving medical support. 4 million nappies have been provided to families, and 40,700 lives have been saved at sea. Most recently, as the charity partner for historic fundraising concert Together for Palestine on 17th September, they have raised over £1.7 million so far for Palestinian partners.
CEO Josie Naughton says really the message for the concert is that, “We should still have hope.
“Everything can feel incredibly overwhelming, but there is actually so much that we can do. Choose Love exists to support our partner organisations, and those partners are doing the most incredible work in the hardest of circumstances, and it's important that we celebrate them, and it's important that we support them.
“We want the message to be how important community is, and a reminder that love is stronger than fear and hate. They're the kind of central things and and obviously as we're going into winter, it's the hardest time for all of our partners.
“There's more need than ever in our whole 10 years of of existing. We’re just encouraging people to help. We know times are hard for everyone but hopefully everyone can do something.”
Looking back over the ten years, Naughton is amazed that it has grown to such a leading organisation.
“We were just group of friends who really wanted to do something to help in 2015 [around the furore around the migrant camp in Calais], after seeing all of the images on the on the news. There was a big movement of people at that at that time who stepped in when governments and larger organizations couldn't or wouldn't.
“We were one of the first social media charities, and very quickly built up an online community who were feeling heartbroken, outraged at what they were seeing happening in the UK and in Europe. To see people who were fleeing unimaginable horrors. What we all saw as we began traveling to these places was that it was always local community-based organisations who were at the front line of any response. But in fact the communities themselves weren't receiving any of the funding.
“So we built up this model of basically connecting people who wanted to help and donate to those people who are doing doing the work. We see ourselves as that kind of connective tissue.”
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They quickly built up connections to these communities and they used their connections to the music and celebrity and fashion worlds to build up their profile: “We were selling the Choose Love t-shirts, we started with a big concert about 4 months into our existence - so it feels appropriate that we're doing doing that again.
“We do the Choose Love shops every year... we've come up with all these different ways to raise funds, and it's just growing and growing. We've supported over 8 million people in the 10 years, which is testament to people's generosity.”
The event at Royal Albert Hall will also feature Letters Live and a lot of secret special guests who Naughton will not be drawn on. But safe to say the stars will be out in force to help support the occasion.
Naughton says bringing in people from the culture world has been absolutely crucial in raising money for people in desperate need of help in areas like Gaza and Sudan.
“Music, theatre, poetry, the arts, can sometimes communicate things that you can't put into words. It brings people together as humans, but also in these times when we need to be getting the messages out about what's happening on the ground, when we need to be doing fundraisers, we are so lucky and grateful that we have all of these people who have influence and a big following. And who share the message, who talk about it, who amplify what's going on because it does enable change to happen.”
She promises a great night for attendees, always keen to make sure their generosity is reciprocated with an unforgettable evening. Those who can’t make it can follow it on their socials and donate there, as well as visit the Choose Love store on Regent Street which is open until Christmas.
And for all the stars on display what Naughton is most looking forward to is hearing some words from their partners around the world: “I'm so excited for our partners to speak on stage because in the Albert Hall because that is like that's what the organisation exists for. We want to be supporting all of our partners the best we can, raising as much funding for them because the needs are greater than ever. We have to keep funding humanitarian work, but then also changing the situation and the root causes of things.
“Advocacy is a big part of what the organisation does and carrying that on next year will be really important. We did an open letter this year to Keir Starmer, around the UK ending its complicity in the horrors in Gaza. We've been campaigning about what's happening in Sudan, so will continuing all of that work as well.”
Does she have a message for Keir Starmer and the government?
“Yeah, my message for them is to please choose love because they they don't seem to be doing that right now.”
10 Years of Choose Love is at the Royal Albert Hall on 20 Nov. Tickets still available: https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/events/2025/10-years-of-choose-love
