Lady Gaga showed up to support Los Angeles amid the devastating fires in the city.
The pop superstar, 38, closed out the FireAid benefit concert at the Intuit Dome on Jan. 30 with a performance of a couple well-known hits and a brand-new song written with fiancé Michael Polansky in response to the destructive fires.
Seated at a piano, Gaga took the stage and opened her three-song set with a solo version of the Bradley Cooper duet “Shallow” from A Star Is Born. “This has been a horrible, scary time,” she then told the audience, nodding to the fires that’ve killed 27 people and destroyed thousands of structures since Jan. 7.
Lady Gaga at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles in January 2025. Kevin Mazur/Getty
“But during these times I feel like people come together and we see how much we need each other. And I want to always remember us just like this,” continued the Grammy and Oscar winner, before performing A Star Is Born track “Always Remember Us This Way” — during which she edited the opening lyric to reference California.
Rather than performing a song from her existing catalog to close out the set, Gaga explained to the crowd, “When I was thinking about what to sing tonight, I thought I wanted to do something hopeful for you. And I was thinking about my songs, and there wasn’t anything that seemed quite right.”
She continued, “So, me and my friend Michael — my fiancé, my love — we wrote this song for you. It’s just for tonight. It’s just for you. I think we all need a lot of things right now, but I think something we may also need is time. Time is a healer.”
Michael Polansky and Lady Gaga in London in September 2024. Karwai Tang/WireImage
The song, a touching piano ballad, featured a refrain of the lyrics “all I need is time.”
Other performers at the Fire Aid benefit show, held at both the Intuit Dome and the Kia Forum, included Olivia Rodrigo, Katy Perry, No Doubt, Stevie Nicks, Jelly Roll, Gracie Abrams and more.
The new ballad isn’t Gaga’s first time collaborating with Polansky, 41, on music. The pair worked together on her Joker: Folie à Deux companion project Harlequin, released last year.
Lady Gaga at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles in January 2025. Amy Sussman/Getty
“It’s just the first time that we decided to fully just go into it and do it. It just felt right,” she told PEOPLE at the film’s Los Angeles premiere. “We were both so excited. We were all warmed up and ready to go.”
Gaga added, “I just love my fiancé so much. He’s my best friend. He’s my partner, and I just feel like when you are with your best friend, everything changes.”
Polansky also has a writing credit on her latest single “Disease,” and he’s named as an executive producer for her upcoming seventh album, Mayhem.
Click here to learn more about how to help the victims of the L.A. fires.
