Billy Joel discovered a brand new “Uptown Lady” — one who was born lengthy after that traditional 1983 single grew to become one in every of his greatest hits — at Madison Sq. Backyard on Wednesday night time.
That will be Olivia Rodrigo — the 19-year-old pop sensation — who famously name-checked the Piano Man in her 2021 hit “Deja Vu”: “And I wager that she is aware of Billy Joel/‘’Trigger you performed her ‘Uptown Lady’/You’re singing it collectively.”
And, fittingly, Rodrigo joined Joel to sing each “Deja Vu” and “Uptown Lady” for some within the viewers who have been sufficiently old to be her grandparents. However there have been surprisingly extra folks within the crowd who knew the phrases to sing alongside to “Deja Vu” than you might need anticipated. In the meantime, Joel smiled and nodded approvingly from his piano bench.
As bittersweet of a breakup tune as “Deja Vu” could also be, it was all love between Rodrigo and Joel, because the giddy younger star made a shock look through the newest of the New York legend’s live shows in his month-to-month residency at MSG.
“I like her music — and so do my children,” stated Joel from his revolving piano as he launched the three-time Grammy winner. And after letting Rodrigo have all the highlight on “Deja Vu,” Joel acquired up from his piano and joined her for an “Uptown Lady” duet that was fizzy enjoyable. It proved simply how a lot the 73-year-old’s music transcends generations.
It was the most recent in a string of shock visitors — from Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi to Tony Bennett and Miley Cyrus — who Joel has welcomed since beginning his Backyard residency in January 2014. And definitely this one ranks among the many most stunning of all of them.
But it surely was additionally fairly ironic that Joel was embracing — and being embraced by — one of many hottest younger artists in the course of Harry Kinds’ 15-show run on the Backyard, which kicked off final Saturday. It was nearly as if he was letting New York know that he wasn’t about to be the irrelevant outdated man in his personal home.
“I’d wish to thank Harry Kinds for taking the night time off, so we will form of squeeze in right here,” he stated cheekily.
Joel then went on to thank the group for ready two years for this COVID make-up present that was postponed from 2020.
“I don’t know if I'd try this for me,” he stated. “Anyway, it’s good to be again on the Backyard. We’re the home band now.”
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