Lady Gaga changes ‘A Star Is Born’ song lyrics to remove line about catching ‘on fire’ at FireAid

Lady Gaga has watered down a key lyric to her popular A Star Is Born soundtrack song “Always Remember Us This Way,” during a Thursday evening performance at the FireAid concert benefiting those affected by the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.

The 38-year-old pop star took the stage in an all-black outfit at the city’s Intuit Dome as the final performer of the evening, sitting behind the piano as she sang a slightly altered rendition of “Always Remember Us This Way” featuring new lyrics that replaced the song’s original words likening romantic attraction to catching “on fire.”

“That California sky burning in your eyes. You look at me and know this feeling I desire,” Gaga sang during her set (at around the 5:49:00 mark in the FireAid stream below), though the original lyrics to the song are, “That Arizona sky burning in your eyes. You look at me and, babe, I wanna catch on fire.”

Elsewhere at the concert, Gaga performed an untitled, one-time-only song that she co-wrote with her fiancé, Michael Polansky, specifically for the benefit concert. Polansky also recently collaborated with Gaga on her Joker: Folie à Deux companion album, Harlequin, and her upcoming seventh solo pop album, Mayhem, which is out on March 7.

“I think it’s a beautiful thing when you can, with your partner, share an artistic experience that might be hard for some people, but Michael understands me so well that it actually gave birth to this record,” Gaga previously told Entertainment Weekly of working with Polansky to channel the complexities of her interpretation of Harley Quinn into the Harlequin album. “If anything, his understanding of Lee in our everyday life and through the filming of the movie helped him to be more of an incredible collaborator. He was always working on how do we push the sound to sonically tell her story in a way that would be vibrant, but also tense, dangerous, and also pure?”

Other artists who participated in the concert — which was split between two venues — included Billie Eilish, Gracie Abrams, Jelly Roll, Katy Perry, Lil Baby, Olivia Rodrigo, Peso Pluma, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Sting, Tate McRae, and Earth, Wind & Fire at the Intuit Dome, while Alanis Morissette, Anderson .Paak, John Mayer, Dawes, Graham Nash, Green Day, John Fogerty, Joni Mitchell, No Doubt, Pink, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stephen Stills, Stevie Nicks, and the Black Crowes performed on a separate stage at the Kia Forum.

According to the event’s official website, proceeds from ticket sales were donated to “short-term relief efforts and long-term initiatives to prevent future fire disasters” in the region, after multiple deadly fires broke out in L.A. and decimated the surrounding area in early January.

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“It was such an honor to sing @FireAidLA for you during this incredibly challenging time,” Gaga shared on social media the morning after the concert. “Thank you for having me, and thank you to everyone who donated. I love you CALIFORNIA, we’ll keep moving forward.”

In addition to the aforementioned Mayhem, Gaga is also set to appear in an undisclosed role in the upcoming second season of Netflix’s Wednesday series — a development EW was first to break news of in November.