FireAid: Watch Billie Eilish duet with Green Day at Los Angeles benefit concert
Expansive wildfires have devastated vast areas of Los Angeles in recent weeks, with tens of thousands of people forced to evacuate their homes and an unparalleled strain placed on the city’s resources. Efforts to help those affected by these fires led to the benefit concert FireAid, which kicked off with a performance by Green Day and Billie Eilish on January 30th.
Opening their set with ‘Last Night On Earth’, a deep cut from their 2009 record 21st Century Breakdown, the Billie Joe Armstrong-fronted group welcomed Eilish onstage to perform the track together. It seems as though the pop punks chose their setlist based on which of their songs are most relevant to the ongoing wildfire relief efforts, as opposed to their most popular hits.
For instance, Eilish and Armstrong sang the lyrics, “I’m here to honour you, if I lose everything in the fire, I’m sendin’ all my love to you,” from the song, which seems particularly pertinent in light of the devastation caused by the wildfires in Los Angeles.
Eilish left the stage after ‘Last Night On Earth’, as Armstrong addressed both the crowd and the state of California as a whole. “Los Angeles,” he declared. “We are still alive! This is California. And we’re all in this together. From the bottom of our hearts, we love you, Los Angeles, and we’ve got your back no matter what.”
After their opener, the band launched into another obscure track, ‘Still Breathing’ and the classic, ‘When I Come Around’. Again, the lyrics to these tracks seem to hold more weight now, following the wildfires.
Over the course of the FireAid benefit concert, legendary performers such as Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, and Red Hot Chili Peppers took to the stage in an act of stunning solidarity with Los Angeles in the wake of these horrific fires which took 28 lives.
According to the organisers, the concert raised around $60 million in the days leading up to the concert from ticket sales and corporate sponsorships alone.
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