Advocacy
Petter Wallenberg has created his own niche where music and arts are used as a tool for advocacy around social issues and human rights. He has created international creative projects and campaigns for UN’s Global Goals, StopHIV and LGBTQ rights and is the founding director of non-profit organisation Rainbow Riots, registered in Sweden and Uganda.
Rainbow Riots
Rainbow Riots, a non-profit organization founded by Petter Wallenberg advocating for the human rights of LGBT people, particularly in countries where being LGBT is controversial or punishable.
As the creative director of Rainbow Riots, Petter collaborates with fellow LGBT artists around the world, and has created a string of high profile international projects, several of which have become milestones in the fight for equality. The achievements include:
- Uganda’s first LGBT community centre, a safe space for LGBT people in a country where same sex relations are illegal.
- ‘Equal Rights’, an official musical campaign for the United Nations Global Goals For Sustainable Development
- ‘Rainbow Riots’ (2017), an album of music featuring queer voices from some of the most dangerous countries in the world for LGBTQ people
- Rainbow Riots India (2019), India’s first Pride anthem, as part of the Indian LGBTQ+ movement that achieved the historic victory of legalizing same sex relations in India
- Rainbow Riots Radio, a web radio series of queer stories from around the world
- Music single “My Love (is the way it’s supposed to be)” featuring legendary American drag performer Lady Bunny and queer voices released for World Pride 2025.
2017 – UN’s Global Goals
As part of an official campaign for the United Nations’ Global Goals For Sustainable Development, Petter Wallenberg created the musical piece “Equal Rights” featuring Jamaican rapper and gay rights activist Mista Majah P. ”Equal Rights” was released globally as a single and music video and performed on the main stage at the opening of Stockholm Pride 2017.
The message is clear – equal rights for LGBTQ people now!
“I’m grateful for this… It makes you so damn happy”
– Tina Mehrafzoon, Musikguiden i P3 Radio, Sweden
2013 – Love Yourself, Test Yourself
HIV awareness is dropping, especially among young people who didn’t grow up with the 80’s AIDS crisis. The Swedish health department and ad agency Lowe Brindfors set out to combat this, and approached Petter Wallenberg to create a groundbreaking new StopHIV-campaign. The result was Love Yourself Test Yourself, a musical campaign about how getting tested is a sex positive act of respecting yourself and others. The song and video were released to radio, iTunes, Spotify, YouTube and many other digital platforms via Universal Music.
The project got massive traction in Swedish media and was even championed by US superblogger Perez Hilton. And most importantly – HIV-testing increased significantly.
As a result Love Yourself Test Yourself won silver at the prestigious 2014 Clio Health Awards.
“Listen to this! Thank you Sweden!” – Perez Hilton
