Billy Joel performs long-awaited comeback song 'Turn The Lights Back On' at the Grammys

5 February 2024, 10:56 | Updated: 5 February 2024, 11:48

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Billy Joel brings his new single to the world with a stunning live performance.

While Billy Joel certainly hadn't been taking it easy over the past couple of decades, he'd long avoided a return to the studio.

That all changed last month with the release of 'Turn The Lights Back On', his first new music in 17 years.

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And rather than perform the song at one of his many, many live shows, he gave the song its live debut on a global stage, performing it at the 2024 Grammy Awards last night.

Billy Joel closed out the show with the track, followed by a run through 'You May Be Right', the hit single from his 1980 album Glass Houses.

While it had seemingly been teased for a few weeks, 'Turn The Lights Back On' came as a huge surprise this year to Billy fans.

The singer-songwriter had the standalone 'All My Life' and 'Christmas in Fallujah' way back in 2007, and said in 2018 that he had given up writing songs for good.

But his spark was relit by this writing collaboration with Freddy Wexler, Arthur Bacon and Wayne Hector, with Wexler handling production duties.

Unsurprisingly given his long absence from the recording studio, Billy Joel wasn't up for any awards this year, so couldn't add to his six awards from 23 nominations over the years.

Billy Joel Red Carpet Interview | 2024 GRAMMYs

Billy Joel gave a red carpet interview ahead of his performance 2024 Grammy Awards where he spoke about his recent studio comeback, admitting that he was feeling "a little busy" at the moment.

He said that – like all of his songs – "life" gave him the inspiration for his big comeback single, adding "you've gotta go through things to be able to write about things".

Quizzed on the other artists he was excited to be seeing, Billy namechecked Miley Cyrus, Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish.