{"id":215899,"date":"2026-01-04T05:53:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T05:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/215899\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T05:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T05:53:07","slug":"billy-joel-makes-surprise-performance-after-health-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/215899\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Joel makes surprise performance after health diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last May, the singer announced via Instagram that he had been diagnosed with Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH)<\/a>, a brain condition.<\/p>\n

The statement said that performing live had \u201cexacerbated\u201d his condition. <\/p>\n

NPH, formerly known as \u2018water on the brain\u2019, can affect hearing, vision and balance, but is reversible with the help of surgery, according to People.<\/p>\n

The singer performed his last full-length show in February last year, Billboard reported, but cleared his concert schedule to focus on his health and begin physical therapy.<\/p>\n

In an interview with People in July, the Grammy winner updated fans on his recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know a lot of people are worried about me and my health, but I\u2019m okay,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I have is something very few people know about, including me, no matter how much you try to research it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m doing my best to work with it and to recover from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans online said they were thrilled to see Joel back onstage.<\/p>\n

\u201cPriceless! Relieved to see Billy getting out on stage again,\u201d one wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cUncontrollable happy tears over here!\u201d another added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love how he enjoys watching his daughters having fun!\u201d a third said.<\/p>\n

The show was staged as part of a weekend of celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of the community amphitheatre where the concert was held.<\/p>\n

The Turnstiles Billy Joel tribute band has performed together for over 11 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last May, the singer announced via Instagram that he had been diagnosed with Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH), a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[74,27605,17466,1596,25759,796,1595,156,1888,134,17467,1362,5338,111,139,69,6777,1527,12900,7811,5433,88,1961,4767],"class_list":["post-215899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-after","tag-appearance","tag-billy","tag-brain","tag-concert","tag-diagnosis","tag-disorder","tag-entertainment","tag-first","tag-health","tag-joel","tag-made","tag-makes","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-performance","tag-return","tag-revealing","tag-since","tag-stage","tag-surprise","tag-this","tag-weekend"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}