Lily Sobhani (born 15 October 1976) is a live events producer who specializes in producing large, internationally broadcast music events, often with a charity component.

Life

Sobhani was born on 15 October 1976 in

Norfolk, England Norfolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and east, Cambridgeshire to the west, a ...

. Her first major production as an executive producer was the original

Fairplay FairPlay is a family of digital rights management (DRM) technologies developed by Apple Inc. for protecting videos, books and apps and historically for music. Music The initial version of FairPlay was created to protect music on the iTunes S ...

concert in 2002 for

Oxfam Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs), focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. It began as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief ...

Make Trade Fair Make Trade Fair was a campaign organized by Oxfam International to promote trade justice and fair trade among governments, institutions, and multinational corporations. As of 2022, the website is defunct. It first appears to have gone offline ...

campaign. She produced through her company Bottle, with partners

Emily Eavis Emily Rose Eavis (born 26 July 1979) is co-organiser of the annual Glastonbury Festival, and the youngest daughter of the festival's founder and organiser, Michael Eavis, and his second wife Jean. Personal life Eavis grew up on Worthy Farm, So ...

and Marianne Troup.

Career

Live 8

In June 2005, Sobhani was called upon by the Make Poverty History coalition to execute a concert in Japan for the

Live 8 Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 conference and summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland, from 6–8 July 2005 ...

concert series.

Live Earth

Sobhani was Worldwide Head of Events, responsible for the delivery of all Live Earth music concerts.

FIFA World Cup Kick-Off Celebration Concert

Most recently, Sobhani produced the inaugural Official FIFA 2010 World Cup Kickoff Celebration Concert, which opened the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament on 10 June. It featured live performances from

Black Eyed Peas The Black Eyed Peas are an American musical group formed in Los Angeles in 1995, composed of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo (rapper), Taboo. Fergie (singer), Fergie was a member during the height of their popularity in the 2000s, and ...

Shakira Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll ( , ; born 2 February 1977) is a Colombian singer-songwriter. Referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Latin Music", she has had a Cultural impact of Shakira, significant impact on the ...

Alicia Keys Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer and songwriter. A classically trained pianist, Keys began composing songs at the age of 12 and was signed by Columbia Records at 15. After d ...

John Legend John Roger Stephens (born December 28, 1978), known professionally as John Legend, is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He began his musical career working behind the scenes for other artists, playing piano on Lauryn Hill's " Every ...

and

Juanes Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez (born 9 August 1972), known professionally as Juanes, is a Colombian musician who was a member of the Rock music, rock band Ekhymosis and is now a solo artist. Since releasing his solo debut album ''Fíjate B ...

. Additionally, a range of African artists such as

Amadou & Mariam Amadou & Mariam were a blind musical duo from Mali, composed of Bamako-born Amadou Bagayoko (guitar and vocals) (24 October 1954 – 4 April 2025) and Mariam Doumbia (vocals) (born 15 April 1958). As well as being a musical duo, they were a ma ...

Angelique Kidjo Angelique or Angélique may refer to: * Angélique (given name), a French feminine name Arts and entertainment Music * Angélique (instrument), a string instrument of the lute family * ''Angélique'', a 1927 opéra bouffe by Jacques Ibert * A ...

, BLK JKS, and

Tinariwen Tinariwen (Tamasheq language, Tamasheq: ; with vowels ; plural of ténéré meaning "desert") is a collective of Tuareg people, Tuareg musicians from the Sahara region of southern Algeria and of northern Mali, in the region of Azawad. Considered ...

also performed.

The Secret Policeman's Ball

Sobhani produced the American reboot of

The Secret Policeman's Ball ''The Secret Policeman's Ball'' is a series of benefit shows staged initially in the United Kingdom to raise funds for the human rights organisation Amnesty International. The shows started in 1976 featuring popular British comedians but lat ...

at the

Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall (also known as Radio City) is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York C ...

in New York on 4 March 2012, a celebration of

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

's 50th Anniversary.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sobhani, Lily British theatre managers and producers British women theatre managers and producers Living people 1976 births