Billy Joel serenades his 'Uptown Girl' Christie Brinkley at Madison Square Garden 30 years after their divorce
The singer penned the iconic 1983 tune about Brinkley, his then-wife.
All these years later, Billy Joel is still singing to his Uptown Girl.
In videos captured at his April 26 Madison Square Garden performance, Joel’s ex-wife Christie Brinkley was having a blast as he sang the 1983 hit penned in her honor. Fans shared snippets of Brinkley, who was featured on the jumbotron, laughing and dancing along throughout the iconic tune.
"Billy Joel wrote 'Uptown Girl' about his then-partner Christie Brinkley,” one fan wrote on TikTok, over a video of the supermodel swaying to the song. “Tonight she watched him sing the song he wrote about her to all of Madison Square Garden.”
The sweet moment comes 30 years after the couple divorced.
In a 2010 interview with Howard Stern, Joel confirmed that while he initially began writing the song about several different women, Brinkley became the focus at the start of their relationship.
"I wasn't even dating Christie when I started, I was dating Elle [Macpherson]," he said, explaining that it was originally titled "Uptown Girls," and had a much broader focus. "And then I started dating Christie, and rather than it being about all these different girls, she became the uptown girl. I started writing it about one person."
Brinkley went on to star in the "Uptown Girl" music video as a sophisticated, upper-class woman to Joel’s blue-collar mechanic. The song peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains one of his most recognizable tracks.
Joel and Brinkley were married from 1985 to 1994 and share one child. The show Brinkley attended also featured their daughter Alexa Ray Joel, who took the stage to perform alongside her father. She sang “Say Goodbye to Hollywood” and serenaded her father with Lulu’s “To Sir with Love.”
Sharing footage and photos from the show, Brinkley wrote on Instagram, “Thanks for singing us a song @billyjoel and @alexarayjoel You’ve got us feeling alright! Just a few snippets from a magical evening at the garden!”
In a subsequent post, Brinkley added, “Before @billyjoel ‘s historic residency at @thegarden becomes a souvenir that slowly fades away.. one more night to remember! Alexa Ray and her Pop in perfect harmony on 'Say Good Bye to Hollywood' one last time in this great huge arena that Billy has turned into his own cozy living room. And then as if that charming duo wasn’t enough, the tears welled up when she surprised her Dad with a serenade of 'To Sir With Love' ... trust me it was sweetness personified. Billy was in his word, faklempt!”
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