Billy Joel will play the final show of his Madison Square Garden residency in July 2024, over a decade after he kicked off the historic monthly concert series. The final gig will also mark his 150th career show at the New York City arena.
“Billy Joel’s franchise run has made history – not only for Madison Square Garden, but also for the music industry overall,” Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MSG Entertainment James Dolan said in a statement. “150 sold out lifetime shows is a remarkable achievement, and speaks to Billy’s extraordinary talent, beloved catalog, and dedicated fanbase. Billy always has a home here at MSG even though the residency is coming to an end with his 150th lifetime performance.”
The monthly residency started January 14, 2014, and was suspended only for Covid and a handful of occasions when medical issues forced them to delay a show. He promised to keep playing “as long as the demand continues,” and the demand only grew as the years went by despite the fact it’s now been 30 years since he released his last album of original pop songs.
“I’ve gone onstage and said, ‘I don’t have anything new for you, so we’re just going to play the old shit,’ ” Joel said to Rolling Stone in 2019. “And the audience goes, ‘Yeah!’ I’ll be sitting in the stadium looking out at 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 people, thinking, ‘What the hell are they all doing here? Why now?’ I guess, in a way, I’m an anachronism. There aren’t that many of me left. There’s a rarity to it, which gives it value.”
Many surprise guests joined him throughout the past decade at Madison Square Garden, including Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Miley Cyrus, Olivia Rodrigo, Jimmy Fallon, Tony Bennett, Sting, and Jon Bon Jovi. “There’s only one thing that’s more New York than Billy Joel – and that’s a Billy Joel concert at MSG,” New York mayor Eric Adams said in a statement. “For more than 50 years, Billy’s music has defined our city and brought us together. On behalf of 8.5 million New Yorkers, congratulations, Billy, on a historic run of sold-out shows at MSG, and thank you for a lifetime of bringing joy to us all.”
Joel currently has MSG shows on sale through September. It will be followed by ten additional concerts, kicking off on October 20, and building up to the grand finale next July.