The lights dimmed at the Kia Forum, Green Day began to sing, and as a large screen showing photographs of burned homes flashed in the background, Billie Eilish stepped onstage to sing with them.
“Los Angeles, we are still alive!” said Billie Joe Armstrong, the singer and guitarist for Green Day. “This is California and we are all in this together.”
And with that, FireAid, the star-studded benefit to raise money for relief efforts after the devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area was off and running. The two Billies were among the first of more than two dozen rock and pop stars who had all come to Inglewood, Calif., to do their part.
Billy Crystal, who lost his Pacific Palisades home in the fire, stepped onstage in the same sweatshirt and beanie that he had fled his home in. He told jokes, noting that the benefit had a simple goal: “to raise more money than the Dodgers spent on free agents.” But he grew serious as well, describing the searing grief of losing his home.
“From Altadena, to Malibu, to the Pacific Palisades, let’s show the world who we are,” he said. “We’re Los Angeles, one city, one heart!”
Then Crystal introduced Alanis Morissette, part of a lineup was so extensive that the concert was being held in two separate arenas. About 40 minutes into the concert, Dr. Dre was onstage calling out “the city of L.A.” in a rendition of Tupac Shakur’s “California Love” while Sheila E. played drums.
After Dre departed the stage, Morissette introduced longtime Los Angeles denizen Joni Mitchell, who sang her classic 1969 ballad “Both Sides, Now” seated in a golden throne and clasping a cane, a picture of regal dignity.
“Something’s lost, but something’s gained,” she sang, in a rare public appearance since her aneurysm in 2015. Her performance became an emotional highlight of the night.
A second show at the nearby Intuit Dome began just before 8:30 p.m. local time when Rod Stewart — introduced by his former neighbor Samuel L. Jackson — kicked things off with “Forever Young.”
“I lived here for 50 years,” he said “Los Angeles is in my blood.”
Just before 9 p.m., as John Mayer was playing down the street and on the wraparound screens at the Intuit Dome, a group of audience members suddenly began to cheer.
Fans on the X social media platform posted photos of former Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, at the concert, waving.
Soon after, the “Abbott Elementary” star Quinta Brunson introduced a teacher who choked up while speaking of saving up her money to buy her home, only to lose it. The crowd gave the teacher a standing ovation, then on came Earth Wind & Fire to perform “September.”
The rest of the show was expected to feature Olivia Rodrigo, Lady Gaga and others. Producers split the lineup along rough genre lines — with the more rock-oriented acts at the Forum, and the pop-oriented acts at the Intuit Dome.
Organizers said the show would be available on platforms including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Hulu, Max, Paramount+, Peacock and YouTube. It will also be available on SiriusXM and iHeartRadio and screened at some AMC and Regal Cinema movie theaters.
As the gates opened Thursday evening at the Intuit Dome, the earliest arrivals milled around the concourse buying concert merchandise, snapping photos at a Snapchat booth, and scooping up free macaroons in a pouch featuring an “I 
LA ” sticker.
In interviews, concertgoers from across California described the show as a win-win. By buying a ticket, they said, they could both support fire victims and enjoy an all-star lineup.
“You don’t mind spending a lot of money if it’s you get a good show, and it goes to a good cause,” said Cliff Wallace, 47, of Irvine, Calif.
Many said they knew people who had been directly effected: A boss’s home burned, a parent evacuated, students they teach displaced.
Grace Hegenbart, 22, of San Diego, said she wanted to drive up for the concert because she understands how hard it is to recover from fire. Her grandparents’ home was destroyed by a wildfire in Mendocino County in 2017.
Jenny Chaiyakal, 44, of Irvine, Calif., whose daughter found out about the concert through Eilish’s social media channels, called the concert “a once in a lifetime event” and praised the stars for being “willing to donate their time and come together to support people in California.”
In the days leading up to the show, organizers said that they had already raised more than $60 million from ticket sales and corporate sponsorships. They say that they plan to distribute donations with the advice of the Annenberg Foundation and that aid will be distributed both for short-term relief efforts and long-term initiatives to prevent future fire disasters throughout Southern California.
On Thursday night Crystal announced that the band U2 had donated $1 million to relief efforts and that Steve and Connie Ballmer would match that donation and all others made during the telecast. (Steve Ballmer, the former Microsoft chief executive and N.B.A. franchise owner, was the driving force behind the construction of the Intuit Dome, where the Los Angeles Clippers play.)
Planning for the concert came together extraordinarily quickly, spearheaded by Irving Azoff, a longtime manager and power broker in music, and his family. Within three days of the fires breaking out, the Intuit Dome, home of the Los Angeles Clippers, had been secured and the event had been announced with the cooperation of Live Nation and AEG Presents, who are usually bitter rivals as the world’s two largest concert promoters.
In a recent phone interview with The New York Times, Azoff said the urgency of the crisis drove the timing of the concert. With the Grammys on Sunday and the Super Bowl the next weekend, organizers felt that the show had to take place as soon as possible or be put off until the end of February. “This is about fund-raising, and you need to get the money in the bank as quickly as you can,” Azoff said.
Organizers have said that artists were quick to join the effort, with Rod Stewart the first to sign on, followed by Stevie Nicks, who plans to perform an unrecorded song.
They were followed by more than two dozen artists — young stars and older legends alike — with a focus on California-based acts, including Mitchell, Eilish, Rodrigo, No Doubt, Lady Gaga, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Green Day. The lineup was announced on Jan. 16.
“We were very lucky in that our thing was booked almost entirely by people volunteering,” Azoff said.
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