Alicia Keys, Beck, Cher, Michael McDonald, Peter Frampton, Trey Anastasio, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Dave Stewart Eurythmics feat. Vanessa Amorosi, Eric Burton, Grace Bowers, Jesse Malin, Kate Hudson, Luke Spiller, Mavis Staples and other music royalty helped raise more than $4 million for charity at Love Rocks 2025, held at Beacon Theatre on March 6.
The proceeds for the Ninth Annual Love Rocks NYC concert benefitted two not-for-profit organizations, New York City-based God’s Love We Deliver and the Los Angeles-based Project Angel Food. The former organization had been the sole beneficiary of the annual concerts since 2017. The latter organization was added this year because of its response to the wildfires in southern California.
Concerts where singers and lead musicians play in front of a house band instead of their touring band can be tricky due to inadequate preparation. In the case of Love Rocks NYC, 10-minute soundchecks began the day before the show, and proved to be fruitful for most of the performances.
Will Lee (The CBS Orchestra) served as the program’s music director, band leader and bassist, as he has done since the benefit concert series launched in 2017. The house band included guitarists Eric Krasno (Soulive, Phil Lesh & Friends) and Larry Campbell (Levon Helm, Bob Dylan), keyboardists Ivan Neville, Jeff Babko (Jimmy Kimmel Live), and Michael Bearden (Lady Gaga), drummer Shawn Pelton (Saturday Night Live), percussionist Pedrito Martinez (Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Camila Cabello), six God’s Love Horns, and six We Deliver Singers.
Radio host Ken Dashow served as the evening’s off-stage announcer. As the houselights dimmed, Dashow introduced Alicia Keys, who opened her three-song set with a smooth Fugees-style cover of “Killing Me Softly with His Song,” which she dedicated to the late Roberta Flack. After singing “No One,” Keys concluded with “Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down,” her answer song to Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind.”
God’s Love We Deliver’s new CEO, Terrence Meck, then offered remarks about the importance of the mission of God’s Love We Deliver, which prepares and delivers medically-tailored meals to about 17,000 homebound New Yorkers each year.
The highlights of the evening were numerous, as were the surprises.
Cher’s three-song set began with her wearing an Elvis Presley-styled pompadour wig while singing Marc Cohn’s “Walking in Memphis,” as she has done in previous performances and in the 1995 video for the song. Accompanied by dancers, Cher performed a three-song set, which also included “(This Is) A Song for the Lonely” and “Believe.” As some of her music was from pre-recorded tracks, the onstage musicians watched her entertaining performance in seeming awe. Her set included three sets of wardrobe and a fourth outfit for the finale.
Whoopi Goldberg and Steve Gutenberg made unannounced appearances in addition to the previously announced hosts, Alex Edelman, Amy Schumer, Susie Essman and Tracy Morgan. The Brooklyn-born Gutenberg ignored the teleprompter as he thanked God’s Love We Deliver for supporting Project Angel Food, while detailing his personal experiences with the wildfires in the Los Angeles area.
Bill Murray, who in the past year has been touring a rock act called Bill Murray & His Blood Brothers, made an unannounced appearance, although he had been a regular participant in previous years. Best known as a comedian and actor, he sang an animated cover of Stephen Stills’ “Love the One You’re With.” The song featured Pedrito Martinez playing congas.
Jesse Malin, the New York-based singer-songwriter who suffered a paralyzing spinal stroke in 2023, rolled onto the stage in his wheelchair and lifted himself to standing position to sing two songs.
Love Rocks NYC 2025 also featured several jaw-dropping, one-time-only collaborations. Peter Frampton, who continues to suffer with a rare degenerative muscular disease, Inclusion-Body Myositis, performed three songs from a chair, concluding with a cover of the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” with Phish’s Trey Anastasio and 18-year-old Grace Bowers.
As Trey Anastasio rocked a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times, Bad Times,” Luke Spiller came on stage to sing the lyrics. Mavis Staples sang a duet with the Doobie Brothers’ Michael McDonald on the Staple Singers’ “I’ll Take You There.” McDonald’s vocal parts were largely him singing the song title repeatedly. Guitarist Christine “Kingfish” Ingram was accompanied by keyboardist Ivan Neville and harmonica player Danny Clinch for a blistering cover of the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “Red House.”
Peter Frampton and Trey Anastasio were not the only artists who sang from their catalog before performing a cover of a standard of the baby-boomer generation.
Beck performed his 1993 hit “Loser.” followed by a cover of Prince’s “1999.” Luke Spiller of the Struts performed for the first time his new solo song, “Love Will Probably Kill Me Before Cigarettes and Wine” before singing Elton John’s “Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting).”
Jesse Malin sang his own “She Don’t Love Me Now,” which Bruce Springsteen recently recorded for a compilation album, then the Rolling Stones’ “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)” with accompaniment from Ivan Neville. Eric Burton of Black Pumas sang his band’s best-known song, “Colors,” followed by a soulful rendition of Otis Redding’s “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay.”
The night concluded with a presentation by the event’s three executive producers, Greg Williamson, John Varvatos & Nicole Rechter. The entire cast returned to the stage for a closing version of Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground.” Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Trey Anastasio and Grace Bowers wailed on their guitars past midnight as the rest of the participants sang the lyrics from the teleprompter hanging from the railing in front of the mezzanine seats. “Higher Ground” was the 29th song of the evening.
Since launching in 2017, the annual Love Rocks NYC concerts have raised $50 million to fund 5 million meals to New Yorkers living with illnesses. The events’ primary beneficiary, God’s Love We Deliver, was founded by a woman on a bicycle during the AIDS pandemic in 1985 and now addresses 200+ diagnoses with its medically-tailored meals and nutrition services. This year will mark the organization’s 40th anniversary. Last year, the staff and volunteers cooked, packaged, and home-delivered more than 4 million meals to 17,000 New Yorkers living with and affected by severe illness. All services are free to clients. For more information, visit glwd.org.
As a member of the Food Is Medicine Coalition (FIMC), God’s Love We Deliver supports the coalition’s national mission while offering vital services to local communities. This year, Love Rocks NYC not only supported the local nonprofit, but also its Food Is Medicine Coalition peer organization Project Angel Food in Los Angeles as a response to the devastating wildfires in the area.
The previous eight Love Rocks NYC benefit concerts featured headliners including Billy F Gibbons, Buddy Guy, Cyndi Lauper, Dave Grohl, Dave Matthews, Heart, James Taylor, Joe Walsh, John Mayer Trio, Jon Bon Jovi, Keith Richards & the X-Pensive Winos, Melissa Etheridge, Nile Rodgers, Norah Jones, Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo, Robert Plant, Sheryl Crow, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, the Black Crowes, the Black Keys, and Ziggy Marley. The series also introduced then-rising contemporary artists including Andra Day, Gary Clark Jr., Hozier, Jim James, Joss Stone, Larkin Poe, Ledisi, Leon Bridges, Marcus King, Nathaniel Rateliff, Rufus Wainwright, Sara Bareilles, St. Vincent, Trombone Shorty, Yola and more.
Love Rocks 2025 Setlist
Alicia Keys: Killing Me Softly with His Song (Lori Lieberman cover) / No One / Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down (featuring elements from “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys)
Eric Burton: Colors (Black Pumas song) / (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay (Otis Redding cover)
Kate Hudson: Gonna Find Out
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram: Red House (The Jimi Hendrix Experience cover, with Danny Clinch and Ivan Neville)
Bill Murray: Love the One You’re With (Stephen Stills cover)
Jesse Malin: She Don’t Love Me Now / Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) (The Rolling Stones cover, with Ivan Neville)
Mavis Staples: I’ll Take You There (The Staple Singers song, with Michael McDonald)
Michael McDonald: What a Fool Believes (Kenny Loggins cover) / Takin’ It to the Streets (The Doobie Brothers song)
Peter Frampton: Georgia (on My Mind) (Hoagy Carmichael and His Orchestra cover) / Do You Feel Like We Do / While My Guitar Gently Weeps (The Beatles cover, with Trey Anastasio and Grace Bowers)
Grace Bowers: Soul Sacrifice (Santana cover)
Luke Spiller: Love Will Probably Kill Me Before Cigarettes and Wine / Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting) (Elton John cover)
Dave Stewart Eurythmics feat. Vanessa Amorosi: Here Comes the Rain Again (Eurythmics song, with Ivan Neville) / Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (Eurythmics song)
Cher: Walking in Memphis (Marc Cohn cover) / (This Is) A Song for the Lonely / Believe
Beck: Loser / 1999 (Prince cover)
Trey Anastasio: Everything’s Right (Phish song) / Good Times Bad Times (Led Zeppelin cover, with Luke Spiller)
Finale: Higher Ground (Stevie Wonder cover)
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