Camden Yards To Welcome Billy Joel For Stadium's First Concert

The Baltimore Orioles and concert promoter Live Nation announced Thursday that musician Billy Joel will be performing at Oriole Park at Camden Yards this summer. That hasn't happened for the longest time. In fact, it hasn't happened ever.

The "Piano Man" will headline the first-ever concert held inside the ballpark and it is scheduled to take place on Friday, July 26, while the Orioles are scheduled to be on a long west coast swing.

“As an entertainment company bringing world class sports, music, and other diverse events to the live venues we manage and to our multimedia television, digital, and radio platforms, there is no greater opportunity than to bring a true music legend in Billy Joel to the ballpark and into our community,” Orioles Executive Vice President John Angelos said in a statement. “Billy Joel and Oriole Park at Camden Yards are leaders across the entertainment world in selling tickets, driving tourism, and creating one-of-a-kind memories, and the Orioles are thrilled to make Camden Yards home to an iconic artist who generations of Americans have grown up with and who is still setting records today.”

.@orioles announce first concert at Camden Yards ever - @billyjoel will play later this summer #Baltimore pic.twitter.com/zoVKJn0tcQ — Phil Yacuboski (@WBALPhil) January 10, 2019

Tickets go on sale to the public next Friday, January 18 at 10:00 a.m. WBAL NewsRadio 1090 and FM 101.5’s Bryan Nehman will be giving away five pairs of tickets during WBAL News Now next Thursday, July 17.

The Orioles Charitable Foundation will donate a portion of the proceeds to support music and arts education programs for kids in Maryland and across the region.

Joel, a Long Island native, has been making music since the 1960s. He recorded a solo album in the early 1970s and, after signing a recording contract with Columbia, worked at a Los Angeles piano bar. His time there inspired his signature song "Piano Man," with which he closes nearly every concert today. He had a breakout hit with his album "The Stranger" in 1977, which included staples like "Just the Way You Are" and "Only the Good Die Young." He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.

He received Kennedy Center Honors in 2013, the same year he became Madison Square Garden's first-ever music franchise. Since January 2014, he's played one show per month at the storied venue. His residency there will have its 60th consecutive sellout on Jan. 24.

It isn't Joel's first stadium show in Baltimore. He performed at M&T Bank Stadium in July 2015.

The Orioles have pursued non-baseball events in recent years. Most famously, Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass there with 60,000 people in October 1995.

However, Orioles owner Peter Angelos vetoed Maryland Stadium Authority plans to invite the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd, telling The Baltimore Sun in 2000 he was worried the stage would damage the playing field.

"I'm not going to have it become some kind of honky tonk for various and sundry rock 'n' roll bands," he said.

More recent efforts, spearheaded by Angelos' sons, John and Louis, to attract athletic and entertainment events had been met with little success until now. Nationals Park in Washington has hosted concerts and even hockey games.

The Baltimore @Orioles, along with concert promoter @LiveNation, announced on Thursday that musician @billyjoel will be performing at Oriole Park at Camden Yards this summer. #billyjoellive pic.twitter.com/SyLLDtLaJ7 — WBAL NewsRadio 1090 and FM 101.5 (@wbalradio) January 10, 2019

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