JehnnyBethcoveredDavid Bowie’s ‘Dollar Days’ at an event at the British Library to mark the 10thanniversary of his death – watch below.
The formerSavages frontwoman was one of a number of Bowie fans, friends and collaborators to have been a part of‘David BowieInTime’,an all-day event at the London venue yesterday (January 17).
As part of the concert that closed out the day, Beth played two tracks from Bowie’s final album ‘Blackstar’,which was released two days beforeBowie died after a private 18-month cancer battle in January 2016.
She played piano and was joined by Donny McCaslin, whose jazz band defined the sonic aesthetic of ‘Blackstar’,for renditions of ‘Dollar Days’ and ‘Girl Loves Me’.Watch footage of the former here:
Also performing on the day were Blixa Bargeld, the Berlin music legend who was frontman of Einstürzende Neubauten and a founding member of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, while legendary Bowie producerTony Viscontiwas on hand for an in-conversation session.
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Writing on Instagram about the show, Beth later said: “Thewhole dayfelt like a dream. Ihadn’tplayed piano in front of people fornearly 10yearsso itgoes without sayingthat I was nervous, but also incredibly happy.What a way tostart 2026!”
She also shared some words that she wrote about ‘Blackstar’,which you can see in full inthe post below. She concluded: “There is a certain point in art, as in life, at which the real and the imagined, the past and the future, the communicable and the incommunicable, the high and the low, life and death, cease to be seen as contradictory. It is this exact point that I suddenly saw in‘Blackstar’.He was speaking to us from beyond. That journey that awaits usall,it seemed that hehad taken it for us and had made it his task to sing about.It’sonly natural for a man who had turned living into a creative lifestyle, to turn death into a work of art.”
“An image came to mind: that of him singing from behind a glass/or a mirror. Orpheus, the Divine Comedy, Ophelia, Twin Peaks…’Blackstar’ stands in a tradition of masterpieces forged exactly at that point of fracture between two worlds: where a living consciousness navigates post-life architecture. Mirrors become portals. Language becomes coded, gestures become rituals. Time collapses. The precise second before disappearance: Still breathing, already gone… Death, not an ending — just another room?”
In 2020,Beth toldNMEabout how her debut solo album ‘To Love Is To Live’ was heavily influenced by Bowieand the shock of his death.“That night I was in L.A., I opened my phone at 3am, saw that [Bowie] was dead and couldn’tsleepso I listened to his music all night,”shesaid. “I was obviouslyreally sad, but also very conscious of the fact that death is part of life. One dayI’mgonnabe gone, so in my coreI felt that therewas something that Ihadn’tdone yet – and that was this record.
“It took me a while to come to that, but the night that Bowie died was certainly the start of the path to this record.”
Tributes have been paidfar and wideto Bowie on the anniversary of his death, includinghis widow Iman, who has a new‘Blackstar’ tattoo, anda range of bands who played Bowie covers, including The Libertines, Anna Calvi and The Molotovs.