Billie Eilish Headlining Climate Concert at Eiffel Tower

FILE - This Nov. 2, 2019 file photo shows singer Billie Eilish at the 2019 LACMA Art and Film Gala in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - This Nov. 2, 2019 file photo shows singer Billie Eilish at the 2019 LACMA Art and Film Gala in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
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Billie Eilish Headlining Climate Concert at Eiffel Tower

FILE - This Nov. 2, 2019 file photo shows singer Billie Eilish at the 2019 LACMA Art and Film Gala in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - This Nov. 2, 2019 file photo shows singer Billie Eilish at the 2019 LACMA Art and Film Gala in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

Billie Eilish, Lenny Kravitz and Jon Batiste are headlining a concert aimed at building awareness around climate at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Thursday.

The concert, organized by NGO Global Citizen, features on the sidelines of an international summit launched by President Emmanuel Macron, said AFP.

Artists H.E.R. and Eilish's brother Finneas are also on the bill for the free show at the Champ de Mars below the Parisian landmark.

The venue hosted a previous Global Citizen concert in 2021 with Elton John and other huge stars that also had parallel concerts in several cities around the world.

Eilish, 21 and a seven-time Grammy winner, is known for her environmental advocacy.

She has given up the use of private jets and during her 2022 "Happier Than Ever" tour, she set up "eco villages" to encourage recycling, voter-registration and provide information on environmental groups.

Thursday's concert, titled "Power our Planet: Live in Paris", seeks to build pressure for a "new global financial pact".

It wants rich countries to keep promises for climate-related funding to poorer nations, reform development banks to focus on the environment, and get commitments from large polluting companies to move towards net-zero emissions.

"Crises are multiplying and the number of those who place their hope in peace and multilateralism will only grow if we, as a global community, demonstrate that we are there to help the most vulnerable," Macron said in a statement.

The stars will perform a series of short sets for around 20,000 spectators who won a lottery for free tickets.

It will also be broadcast online via multiple sites.

Actresses including Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh will also be present to speak during the event.

 

 



Jingle Jangle: Draft Lyrics to ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ Sell for $508K at US Auction 

An image released by Julien's Auctions shows musician Bob Dylan's lyrics for various famed songs are show in this undated image. (Julien's Auctions via AP)
An image released by Julien's Auctions shows musician Bob Dylan's lyrics for various famed songs are show in this undated image. (Julien's Auctions via AP)
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Jingle Jangle: Draft Lyrics to ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ Sell for $508K at US Auction 

An image released by Julien's Auctions shows musician Bob Dylan's lyrics for various famed songs are show in this undated image. (Julien's Auctions via AP)
An image released by Julien's Auctions shows musician Bob Dylan's lyrics for various famed songs are show in this undated image. (Julien's Auctions via AP)

Draft lyrics to Bob Dylan’s song “Mr. Tambourine Man” went for over a half-million dollars as part of a weekend sale of dozens of items related to the iconic American singer-songwriter.

About 60 Dylan items — including photos, music sheets, his guitar, pencil drawings and an oil painting composed by the Nobel Prize for literature winner — were sold on Saturday in Nashville, Tennessee, through Julien’s Auctions.

The items generated nearly $1.5 million in sales overall through in-person and online bidding, the auction house said. Julien's said 50 of the items, including the lyrics that received the highest sale price, came from the personal collection of late music journalist Al Aronowitz.

The typewritten lyrics, which covered three drafts of the 1965 song, were written on two sheets of yellow paper, with Dylan’s annotation on the third draft.

Dylan wrote the original draft lyrics in the journalist's New Jersey home, according to Julien’s, citing a 1973 newspaper article by Aronowitz.

Dylan sat “with my portable typewriter at my white formica breakfast bar in a swirl of chain-lit cigarette smoke, his bony, long-nailed fingers tapping the words out” on copy paper, Aronowitz was quoted as writing.

The third draft, while close to the final version, still had significant variations from the final lyrics, the auction house said on its website.

The song appeared as the lead track on the acoustic side of his 1965 “Bringing It All Back Home” album and was the first Dylan composition to reach No. 1 in the United States and the United Kingdom, Julien’s said.

Other high-selling items Saturday included a 1968 Dylan-signed oil-on-canvas painting for $260,000 and a custom 1983 Fender guitar that he owned and played for $225,000.

Dylan, now 83, is garnering attention with last month's release of the movie “A Complete Unknown," which focuses on his rise to stardom in the early 1960s. Dylan is played by Timothée Chalamet, who has worked for several years on the role, which involves singing and playing guitar.