Billy Joel Live Debuts 'Turn the Lights Back On' for First Grammy Performance in 30 Years

Piano Man is back at the 2024 Grammys, with Billy Joel taking the stage to perform his latest single “Turn the Lights Back On.”

The performance – Joel's first Grammy performance in 30 years – was preceded by a video package explaining the new song's origin story, with co-writer Freddy Wexler saying his dream of meeting Joel came true when his wife introduced him to a doctor who knew another doctor who once knew Billy Joel.”

That loose relationship led to a long lunch meeting between Wexler and the icon who, Wexler says, became “unlikely friends” and eventually wrote the song together.

“It took him a while to tell me,” says Joel, who says he recorded and “didn't hate my voice, and I usually hate it.”

Joel, who has had 33 top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, ended up co-writing “Turn the Lights Back On” with Wexler, Arthur Bacon and Wayne Hector. Wexler also produced it. It's Joel's first song released with lyrics since 2007's “All My Life.”

“The whole point of doing what I do is because it was so much fun to do when I first started. I lost it after a while. Freddy made me find the joy in it again,” Joel said.

The show featured Joel at the piano singing the ballad, his voice sounding lower than in his prime but still rich and true, with the camera occasionally cutting to Wexler singing along. Joel's companions were included Icelandic-Chinese singer Laufey, who won the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal album earlier in the evening.

Joel later closed out the 2024 Grammys with a rousing rendition of the 1980 classic “You May Be Right.”