During Billy Joel‘s Wednesday night (24.08.22) show at New York’s Madison Square Garden, the legendary 73-year old piano man was joined by 19-year-old pop superstar Olivia Rodrigo for renditions of her 2021 mega-hit ‘deja vu’ and his 80s’ classic ‘Uptown Girl’.
Introducing Olivia to the audience, Joel stated “I’m going to bring up another young musician. This is a very talented singer-songwriter.” “She’s very talented. I like her music and so do my kids. Please say hello to Olivia Rodrigo.”
Rodrigo responded with “Thank you so much for having me, Billy. I’m such a huge fan, and I kind of wrote this next song about you.”
With Joel accompanying her on the piano, the ‘good 4 u’ hitmaker took the liberty of switching up the lyrics of her song to include “And I bet that she knows Billy Joel / ‘Cause you played her ‘Uptown Girl’.” “Play her piano, but she doesn’t know / That I was the one who taught you, Billy Joel.”
Not the first time Olivia has had onstage celebrity cameos, she joined Alanis Morissette for ‘You Oughta Know’, and jumped on stage with idol Avril Lavigne to perform ‘Complicated,’ as well as Natalie Imbruglia for a rendition of ‘Torn’.
During the Glastonbury music festival in June, Rodrigo brought out Lily Allen for a cover of her 2008 hit ‘F*** You’ in response to the overturning of the Roe v Wade ruling, which has left millions of women across the US without access to legal or safe abortions.
During their British performance Olivia stated “I’m devastated and terrified. So many women and so many girls are going to die because of this. I wanted to dedicate this next song to the five members of the Supreme Court who have showed us that at the end of the day, they truly don’t give a s*** about freedom. The song is for the justices: Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh. We hate you! We hate you.”
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: slgckgc – Billy Joel at the Newly Refurbished Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum