Yoko Ono's 80th Birthday Celebration

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Yoko Ono at her 80th birthday party
Yoko Ono at her 80th birthday partyPhotography by Roland Owsnitzki

Yoko Ono, the acclaimed activist, artist and musician who just celebrated her birthday at the Volksbühne (People’s Theatre) in Berlin last night, brought a lively night with a live performance with the Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band...

Who? Yoko Ono, the acclaimed activist, artist and musician who just celebrated her birthday at the Volksbühne (People’s Theatre) in Berlin last night, brought a lively night with a live performance with the Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band featuring Sean Lennon.

"Musical guests like Peaches, Michael Stipe and Rufus Wainwright helped kickstart a happy birthday sing-along in English and German"

What? Yoko belted out her experimental vocals from her critically-acclaimed 2009 album Between My Head And The Sky. Onstage with her son, Sean Lennon, she brought onstage musical guests like Peaches, Michael Stipe and Rufus Wainwright, who helped kickstart a happy birthday sing-along in English and German.

Yoko was in Germany to open her biggest European art show at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, the Half-A-Wind Show: A Retrospective, featuring over 200 films, photos, sculptures and more from the past 60 years. One of her most popular pieces, Cut Piece, is on show alongside newer performance installations like Moving Mountains.

Why? As Sean Lennon concluded before the audience broke into an acapella version of Give Peace a Chance, “My mom didn’t want to celebrate her birthday anywhere else but Berlin. Thanks guys, we’ll never forget this.”

The Half-A-Wind show runs until May 12 at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, Germany

Text by Nadja Sayej