Pick a Day

Music History Events: Memorable Concerts

February 14, 2025 Saturday Night Live celebrates their 50th season with a Radio City Music Hall concert stocked with some of their most memorable musical guests, including Cher, Eddie Vedder, Arcade Fire, Bonnie Raitt, Lady Gaga and Brandi Carlile. One memorable moment is Post Malone teaming with the living members of Nirvana to play "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

January 30, 2025 A parade of stars including Stevie Wonder, Olivia Rodrigo and Katy Perry perform at the FireAid benefit concerts in Los Angeles to raise money for victims of the California wildfires, which left 29 dead and destroyed thousands of homes. The concert is held at two venues and runs for six hours.More

October 26, 2024 North Carolina natives Luke Combs and Eric Church put on the Concert For Carolina in Charlotte to raise money for victims of Hurricane Helene, which devastated the state a month earlier. Performers include Sheryl Crow, James Taylor, The Avett Brothers and Keith Urban; the event brings in $24.5 million in donations, plus another $1 million from Dolly Parton.

October 11, 2024 Brantley Gilbert stops his show in Tupelo, Mississippi when he gets word that his wife is in the tour bus and has gone into labor (assisted by a midwife). Gilbert witnesses the birth and returns to the stage to finish the set, telling the crowd, "We got a baby!"

August 11, 2024 Phoenix close out the Paris Olympics with a closing ceremony set that includes crowd-pleasers "Lisztomania" and "1901." The band, which formed in Paris but sing mostly in English, quickly win over the athletes and spectators. By the end of the set, lead singer Thomas Mars is in the crowd, being held aloft by Olympians.

July 10, 2024 Cypress Hill team up with the London Symphony Orchestra for a concert at Royal Albert Hall. This odd pairing first happened in the 1996 "Homerpalooza" episode of The Simpsons when the Cypress Hill and LSO avatars played "Insane In The Brain" together.

June 15, 2024 110,905 fans see George Strait perform at Kyle Field, the football stadium on the campus of Texas A&M, setting a record for largest paid crowd at a US non-festival concert. The previous record holder was Grateful Dead, who drew 107,019 to their 1977 show in Englishtown, New Jersey. Strait's record doesn't last long: Zach Bryan breaks it in 2025 when he headlines the first concert ever held at Michigan Stadium (the "Big House"), the largest stadium in America.

May 4, 2024 A crowd estimated at 1.6 million watch Madonna cap off her Celebration Tour at a free concert in Rio. The concertgoers fill up a 2.4-mile stretch of Copacabana Beach equipped with giant sound towers with huge video screens, a $12 million production.

March 13, 2024 At his concert in Los Angeles, Justin Timberlake brings out his group 'N Sync, who perform together for the first time since the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. Along with a medley of their hits, they debut a new song, "Paradise."

December 10, 2023 TikTok stages their first live music event with a five-hour concert in Mesa, Arizona, featuring Charlie Puth, Cardi B, Peso Pluma and a slate of emerging artists. 17,000 phone-wielding fans attend the sold-out show, with over 9 million more watching online.

September 29, 2023 U2 kick off their U2:UV Achtung Baby Live residency at The Sphere in Las Vegas, a $2.3 billion orb with a 250-foot wraparound screen. U2 is the first act to perform there, but they do it without drummer Larry Mullen Jr., who is recovering from surgery.

September 4, 2023 Diana Ross makes a surprise appearance at Beyoncé's Los Angeles show to wish her a happy 42nd B'Day. After singing her hit "Love Hangover," Ross leads the crowd in "Happy Birthday."

August 11, 2023 The Hip Hop 50 Live concert goes down at Yankee Stadium, celebrating 50 years since Kool Herc birthed the genre in the Bronx. Performers include Snoop Dogg, The Sugarhill Gang, Lauryn Hill, and Run-D.M.C. in their last performance.

June 25, 2023 Elton John headlines the Glastonbury Festival, where he tells the crowd it may be his last show in England. A record 7.6 million tune in to watch on the BBC.

June 24, 2023 At the Glastonbury Festival, Lewis Capaldi struggles to control his Tourette's syndrome and can't make it through his hit "Someone You Loved." He's shaken but visibly moved when the crowd sings it for him in a unified show of support. Capaldi takes a break from music to work on his health, and slowly returns to action in 2024.

April 29, 2023 Willie Nelson celebrates his 90th birthday with a concert at the Hollywood Bowl. Guest performers include Norah Jones, The Chicks, and Snoop Dogg, who joins Nelson on their duet "Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die."

October 30, 2021 Harry Styles, known to wear a dress on occasion, plays his Madison Square Garden show in costume as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, with his band dressed like characters from the movie. He calls it "Harryween"; the next night he takes the stage as a Pierrot clown.

February 20, 2020 Five Finger Death Punch play their first show in Hungary, where their guitarist and founding member Zoltan Bathory was raised under communist rule. "We had this idea that a Hungarian musician can't break out of here," he says before the sold-out show in Budapest. "I feel like I broke the curse."

March 13, 2014 During her performance of "Swine" at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, Lady Gaga has a performance artist vomit green liquid on her repeatedly. It's a statement on processing rage and rejecting the norms of pop music, but fans are more repelled than intrigued.

May 24, 2010 At a Lamb of God concert in Prague, lead singer Randy Blythe pushes an encroaching fan off the stage. The man falls backward, hits his head, and dies two weeks later from the injury. Blythe doesn't know that the fan is seriously injured, and isn't aware of it when Czech authorities issue a warrant for his arrest. When the band returns to play a show in 2012, police detain Blythe and hold him in prison for five weeks. He later stands trail and is cleared of the charges.

October 29, 2009 To celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a series of concerts take place at Madison Square Garden, featuring inductees Bruce Springsteen, Bono, Mick Jagger and Aretha Franklin.

June 27, 2009 Neil Young performs in London's Hyde Park. He is joined on stage by Paul McCartney for a duet of "A Day In The Life."

April 22, 2009 Jeff Beck is joined onstage by Rod Stewart for the first time in over 25 years at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, California.

April 19, 2009 The Flaming Lips celebrate Earth Day with a performance on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

February 12, 2009 Fans at Paul Simon's concert at the Beacon Theater in New York City are treated to a surprise appearance by Art Garfunkel, who sings three songs with Simon.

February 1, 2009 Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform at the Bridgestone halftime show during Super Bowl XLIII between the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

September 23, 2008 Tom Delonge of blink-182 joins Rivers Cuomo on stage to sing "Undone - The Sweater Song" as Weezer open their Troublemaker tour in Lowell, Massachusetts.

August 23, 2008 Erykah Badu joins My Morning Jacket during their performance in Dallas to perform her song "Tyrone."

July 21, 2008 Yeah Yeah Yeahs frontwoman Karen O premieres her new side project, Native Korean Rock, at Union Pool in Brooklyn, New York.

June 7, 2008 Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones make a surprise appearance to jam with Foo Fighters during their Wembley Stadium gig in London. The one-night-only supergroup plays "Rock And Roll" and "Ramble On."