Pick a Day

Music History Events: Performance Debuts

June 11, 1949 Hank Williams makes his debut at the Grand Ole Opry, where he plays his new single "Lovesick Blues" and earns an amazing six encores.

September 29, 1947 Dizzy Gillespie makes his Carnegie Hall debut.

December 1, 1945 Burl Ives makes his concert debut at New York's Town Hall.

August 20, 1882 Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuts in Moscow.

December 24, 1871 Verdi's opera Aida, set in Egypt, debuts at the Khedivial Opera House in Cairo.

November 9, 1858 Today marks the first performance of the New York Symphony Orchestra.

January 3, 1843 The opera Don Pasquale by Gaetano Donizetti and Giacomo Ruffini premieres in Paris.

January 25, 2016 Neil Young performs "Till the Morning Comes" live for the first time in his career while playing a private concert for French billionaire Édouard Carmignac. Young does the song as a medley with "Cripple Creek Ferry."

December 27, 2013 Britney Spears debuts her Las Vegas show, Britney: Piece of Me, which runs for four years at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.

December 18, 2011 One Direction play their first show, performing at Watford Colosseum in London. It does not go well. "We were just a joke," Niall Horan says.

July 24, 2011 At the Mod Club in Toronto, Abel Tesfaye performs as The Weeknd for the first time. Visibly nervous, he keeps a firm grip on the microphone.More

November 2, 2007 A right of passage for any up-and-coming British musical act, Laura Marling makes her debut on Later…with Jools Holland, performing the songs "Ghosts" and "New Romantic" before a live studio audience. The former Squeeze founder's late night music variety show has become an institution in the UK, and many other networks rebroadcast it around the world.

June 3, 2006 At the Rock am Ring Festival in Nürburgring, Germany, Metallica perform their classic album Master Of Puppets in its entirety for the first time ever.

October 31, 1999 In Biloxi, Mississippi, on the last stop of The Family Values Tour, Aaron Lewis of Staind captivates the crowd with the debut performance of "Outside," leading the way for their breakout album, Break The Cycle.More

May 28, 1995 At the Roxy in Los Angeles, System Of A Down play their first concert, debuting songs like "Sugar" and "P.L.U.C.K." that show up on their first album three years later.

August 15, 1990 The Verve perform in public for the first time, playing the Honeysuckle pub in Poolstock, near their hometown of Wigan, England.

June 1, 1990 Mariah Carey makes her national TV debut, performing "Vision Of Love" on The Arsenio Hall Show. The song enters the Hot 100 the next day and goes to #1 eight weeks later.

February 25, 1989 Nirvana debut their Bleach track "Negative Creep" live at the Husky Union Building at the University of Washington in Seattle.

March 14, 1987 At Fender's Ballroom in Long Beach, California, No Doubt play their first concert, a benefit for a local scooter shop that burned down. In the audience is Tony Kanal, who like No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani, is still in high school. He joins the band later that year and starts dating Stefani; their breakup inspires the song "Don't Speak."

October 20, 1984 A-ha make their television debut, performing four songs – including an early version of their future #1 hit "Take On Me" - on Lordagssirkus, a program from their native Norway.

March 25, 1983 INXS play America for the first time, performing at The Spirit Club in San Diego to a crowd of 24 people. In May, they play to a more substantial crowd when they're on the bill at the US Festival.

March 14, 1982 At Radio City in Anaheim, California, Metallica play their first-ever show. Their first song is "Hit The Lights."

December 31, 1978 Bauhaus play their first show, performing at the Cromwell Public House in Wellingborough, UK.

August 31, 1978 The Grateful Dead perform "Shakedown Street" live for the first time ever at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Colorado.

February 28, 1978 The Village People play their first concert, performing at 2001 Odyssey in New York City, the setting for Saturday Night Fever.

June 17, 1977 At the Civic Center in Amarillo, Texas, Judas Priest play their first show in America, opening for REO Speedwagon. The British metal band is looking to make headway in the US, where they're released their album Sin After Sin; they get a better pairing at the end of the tour when they open two shows for Led Zeppelin.

December 31, 1973 Journey, formed by ex-Santana members Gregg Rolie and Neal Schon, make their live debut at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. Rolie handles the lead vocals; Steve Perry doesn't join the group until 1977.

September 13, 1971 Deep Purple write "Highway Star" on the way to show in Portsmouth, UK, where they play it that night.

June 14, 1968 The Jeff Beck Group, with lead singer Rod Stewart, make their US concert debut, opening for the Grateful Dead at the Fillmore East in New York City. Stewart has stage fright, which is cured when he takes some swigs of rum from a bottle he shares with guitarist Ron Wood.

November 7, 1967 Pink Floyd appear on US TV for the first time, performing "Apples And Oranges" on American Bandstand.