Joni Mitchell, Billie Eilish and Others Perform at FireAid Concert

Billie Eilish and Green Day kicked off the show with a duet. Joni Mitchell made a rare public appearance. Katy Perry pranced around the stage waving a state flag as she belted the 2010 banger, “California Gurls.”

Over almost six hours, on two arena stages in South Los Angeles, more than two dozen of the biggest names in pop music gathered for FireAid, a star-studded benefit to raise money for relief efforts after the devastating wildfires across the region.

“As far as I’m concerned,” Anderson .Paak told the crowd, “This is one of the greatest nights in Los Angeles history.”

It was a night filled with serious, somber moments. Billy Crystal, who lost his Pacific Palisades home in the fire, stepped onstage in the same sweatshirt and beanie that he was wearing when he fled the house. Miles Teller, who introduced Olivia Rodrigo, said his home was gone, too. And Teller was joined onstage by a young man who told of carrying his mother down five flights of stairs as he took flight.

“Tell me something good,” Lady Gaga sang as the evening wound down.

And there was that, too. At one of the arenas, the Intuit Dome, the lights turned purple and the crowd erupted as Olivia Rodrigo began her the alt-pop anthem, “Deja Vu,” with its opening line about “car rides to Malibu.” The audience there gave a standing ovation to a teacher — introduced by the “Abbott Elementary” star Quinta Brunson — who choked up while speaking of saving money to buy a home, only to lose it. Flea, the underwear-clad bass player of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, echoed others when he shouted: “Los Angeles is our home,” and, using an expletive, added: “We love you.”

Indeed, so many of the performers call, or have called, Los Angeles home. Their performances were woven together with the testimonials of neighbors, who, until Thursday night, had carried with them heavy stories that were lesser known.

The songs the artists played, some at the Kia Forum down the road from the Intuit Dome, were often tributes to the city: Dr. Dre onstage calling out “the city(yyyy) of L.A.” in a rendition of Tupac Shakur’s “California Love” while Sheila E. played drums; Jelly Roll alongside the local Blink-182 drummer, Travis Barker, to cover “Hollywood Nights”; the Chili Peppers performing “Dani California,” “Californication” and the band’s Los Angeles homage “Under the Bridge.”

Even the Los Angeles denizen Joni Mitchell came out to sing her classic 1969 ballad “Both Sides, Now” while seated in a golden throne and clasping a cane, a picture of regal dignity.

“Something’s lost, but something’s gained,” she sang, in a rare public appearance since she suffered an aneurysm in 2015.

Of course, there were prominent Californians in the audience, too. Former Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, were spotted at the concert, waving.

Outside, as the Intuit Dome’s gates opened on Thursday evening, concertgoers from across California described the show as a win-win. By buying a ticket, they said, they could both support fire victims and enjoy an all-star lineup.

As they milled around the concourse buying concert merchandise, snapping photos and scooping up free macaroons and “I ♥️ LA ” stickers, many said they knew people who had been directly affected by the wildfires.

“You don’t mind spending a lot of money if you get a good show, and it goes to a good cause,” said Cliff Wallace, 47, of Irvine, Calif.

In the days leading up to the show, organizers said that they had already raised more than $60 million from ticket sales and corporate sponsorships. They say that they plan to distribute donations with the advice of the Annenberg Foundation and that the aid will be both for short-term relief efforts and long-term initiatives to prevent future fire disasters.

On Thursday night, Crystal announced that the band U2 had donated $1 million to relief efforts and that Steve and Connie Ballmer would match that donation and all others made during the telecast. (Steve Ballmer, the former Microsoft chief executive and N.B.A. franchise owner, was the driving force behind the construction of the Intuit Dome arena, where the Los Angeles Clippers play.)

Planning for the concert, which was available to watch on an array of streaming platforms, came together extraordinarily quickly, spearheaded by Irving Azoff, a longtime manager and power broker in music, and his family. Within three days of the fires breaking out, the Intuit Dome had been secured and the event had been announced with the cooperation of Live Nation and AEG Presents, who are usually bitter rivals as the world’s two largest concert promoters.

In a recent phone interview, Azoff said the urgency of the crisis had driven the timing of the concert. With the Grammys on Sunday and the Super Bowl the next weekend, organizers felt that the show had to take place as soon as possible, he said. “This is about fund-raising, and you need to get the money in the bank as quickly as you can,” Azoff added.

Organizers have said that artists were quick to join the effort, with Rod Stewart the first to sign on, followed by Stevie Nicks. They were followed by more than two dozen artists — young stars and older legends alike — with a focus on California-based acts.

“We were very lucky in that our thing was booked almost entirely by people volunteering,” Azoff said.

To close the evening, Lady Gaga said she wanted to bring forward a hopeful song. So she wrote a new one, she said, “just for tonight, just for you.”

The chorus went like this: “All I need is time, to leave it all behind — and keep moving forward.”

Marc Hogan contributed reporting.



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