IN its third year, the Global Citizen Festival took its ambitious name to heart during its Saturday gathering on the Great Lawn of New York’s Central Park.

In addition to show-stopping performances from Jay Z (with a two-song finale cameo from Beyonce), No Doubt (who were at one point joined by Sting), Carrie Underwood, fun., Alicia Keys, The Roots and Tiesto, efforts to fix seemingly all the world’s problems were rampant throughout.

Jay Z treated the crowd to a mini-redux of his just-wrapped On The Run Tour when wife Beyonce showed up at the end of his 45-minute set to sing Justin Timberlake’s bars on “Holy Grail” as well as the anthemic, set-closing “Forever Young.”

Keys invited musicians from both Israel and Palestine to perform alongside her.

Pregnant-in-heels Underwood wowed the crowd with her expected hits but saved her most compelling moment for a cover of R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts.”

Celebrities like host Hugh Jackman and presenters Dianna Agron, Zachary Quinto and Erin Heatherton appeared alongside world dignitaries like Queen Silvia of Sweden, Prime Minister Narenda Modi of India, Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway and U.S. President Barack Obama (via pre-recorded video), interrupting the raucous adrenaline of the rock performances taking place to remind the 50,000-plus crowd and global audience tuning in via NBC/ MSNBC of global poverty as well as epidemics like ebola, HIV and dirty water. (SD-Agencies)