Between Paramore, her solo career, the new side project Power Snatch, and a litany of guest features, Hayley Williams has been involved with a lot of great music over the years. That incredible streak of output continues today with an appearance on Beabadoobee's newly released Pylon. But of all those Williams tunes, the best-known is almost certainly "Airplanes," a collaboration with rapper B.o.B that went to #2 on the Hot 100 (and hit #1 in the UK!) back in 2010. If my colleague Tom Breihan ever launches a Number Twos column, I greatly look forward to his column on that one.
Williams is out on a tour called the Hayley Williams Show right now, performing songs from across her solo catalog. Thursday in Queens, she played the second of two shows at Forest Hills Stadium. There, she sang "Airplanes" live for the first time since joining B.o.B onstage in NYC back in December 2010. During the encore at Forest Hills, opening act Rico Nasty joined Williams for a run through "Airplanes," with Rico handling B.o.B's rap verses. Rico Nasty may not believe in dinosaurs, but to our knowledge she is not a flat-earther.
Watch footage of the surprise performance below.
Williams' teaser for the Forest Hills shows back in April had lyrics from her Zedd collab "Stay The Night," while the Hollywood Bowl teaser had "Airplanes." So maybe we will get the Zedd song in LA.
