We are pleased to announce that Kygo has been named an ambassador to the Rafto Foundation, which will be the start of a long- term partnership focusing on supporting the Bergen-based organization.

Started in 1987, The Rafto Foundation was created in memory of human rights activist and professor, Thorolf Rafto, who hailed from Kygo`s hometown of Bergen and taught Economic History at the Norwegian School of Economics. 

Each year, the Professor Thorolf Rafto’s Prize for Human Rights award is given to a recipient who has dedicated his or her career to human rights activism on the frontlines. Four former Rafto award winners have gone on to later become Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. 

Kygo’s first project will support Frank Mugisha and his organization, SMUG (Sexual Minorities in Uganda). Part of the revenue from Kygo’s Cloud Nine Festival in Bergen on August 20, 2016 will directly SMUG in purchasing a house. In Uganda, SMUG and its members face serious repercussions for participating in their work including: violence, life imprisonment, or financial consequences once their sexual orientation is known. 

Kygo plans to donate USD $50,000 of the profit from Kygo`s own Cloud Nine Festival for SMUG’s house project, which is co-financed by the Kennedy Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Kygo is excited to embark on this new partnership with the Rafto Foundation as this cause is something he feels strongly about: “This is an important issue. Everyone should be able to live with the sexual orientation they have.”

 “I am a lucky guy from a peaceful country who can travel the world doing what I like most. For me it is important to raise the awareness about those brave people who are in the frontline of defending human rights. They are the true heroes who make the world a better place for all of us,” he said. 

Here Kygo is interviewed together with Frank Mugisha.