David Bowie Lives On With Tribute Concerts

David Bowie. The mere mention of his name renews our grief, our nostalgia, and our utter adoration for his music, a gift that will outlast us all. David will be remembered anew in a series of concerts that will pay tribute to the late Mr. Bowie with covers of his greatest hits and deepest cuts. The concerts are to be staged in New York City, but plans are underway to make these David Bowie tribute concerts accessible to all through live online streaming.

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars Songwriter David Bowie Will Be There In Spirit

New York City will pay tribute to David Bowie with concerts on two consecutive nights, this Thursday and Friday, at Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall. Proceeds from the concerts are being donated to unspecified charities, and organizer Michael Dorf says money raised from streaming the benefit concerts will also go to charitable causes.

Dorf has been organizing benefit concerts of this nature for some time now, and he says some artists choose to perform at their own tribute concerts, which had been Dorf’s hope for Bowie’s concert in the early planning stages. In a sad twist, the day that plans for the March 31 Bowie tribute concert were announced to the public, 69-year-old David Bowie passed away.

Dorf believes Mr. Bowie “will be there in spirit.”

The sudden passing of Bowie led to an upswing in interest in the benefit concert, compelling Dorf to set up a second concert at Radio City Music Hall, a much larger venue.

“We’re going to raise close to three times what we normally do per year in terms of the donation to music-education programs for kids,” Dorf said. “So, [it’s] a silver lining to some extent.”

Who Will Perform At The David Bowie Tribute Concerts?

Tickets for the David Bowie tribute concerts are expectedly pricey, ranging from $325 up to $3,000, depending on the package and the venue. VIP tickets for the Radio City Music Hall concert have already sold out, as have tickets to the afterparty at City Winery.

A full listing of the artists confirmed to appear can be found here. Among the performers are some of the biggest names in music from the 80s and 90s, including Michael Stipe, Ann Wilson of Heart, Debbie Harry (solo and with Blondie), and Cyndi Lauper.

Additionally, a new round of performers slated to perform at one or both of the David Bowie benefit concerts has just been released. The new music artists are J Mascis, Patti Smith, Esperanza Spalding, Kyp Malone, Eugene Hutz, Kronos Quartet, Bilal, and Tariq.

As mentioned earlier in this article, the David Bowie tribute concert will be accessible to internet users. Dorf’s organization has partnered with Skype to make the Radio City Music Hall concert available to Bowie fans worldwide. A suggested donation of $20 or £15 is being asked, which may be preferable to many Bowie fans over the live concert’s ticket prices.

Whether viewed online or experienced live at one of the New York City venues, the David Bowie tribute concerts present a unique opportunity for fans to remember David and his ever evolving musical offerings. It has been said that David’s unique ability for reinventing himself for each new generation and remaining relevant to the world’s youth helped him to stand out as a musical genius. There can be no greater memory for the fans left behind than to experience a tribute to Bowie’s music, from 1969’s “Space Oddity” to his “Blackstar” hit of 2016.

David Bowie may be gone, but he left a massive library of music, so we might remember, just for a while, what the world was like before David Bowie left us to find Life on Mars.

[Image by Bryan Bedder / Getty Images]