Elton John on Friday said that he had played in some beautiful venues, but the stage in front of the White House, beneath a massive tent on a perfect autumn night, was “probably the icing on the cake.”
Then he began the show with Your Song, his first big international hit.
US President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden welcomed the 75-year-old singer, talking about his activism, the power of his music and his all-around goodness. The event was dreamed up and paid for by A+E Networks and the History Channel.
Photo: Reuters
“Seamus Heaney once wrote, and I quote, ‘Once in a lifetime, the longed-for tidal wave of justice can rise up, and hope and history rhyme,’” Biden said. “Throughout his incredible career, Sir Elton John has been that tidal wave, a tidal wave to help people rise up and make hope and history rhyme.”
The night itself was called “A Night When Hope and History Rhyme.”
The 2,000-person guest list included teachers, nurses, frontline workers and LGBTQ advocates, plus former first lady Laura Bush, civil rights advocate Ruby Bridges, education activist Malala Yousafzai and Jeanne White-Ginder, an AIDS activist and mother of Ryan White, who died from AIDS-related complications in 1990.
It was John’s first White House concert since he performed with Stevie Wonder at a state dinner in 1998 honoring then-British prime minister Tony Blair.
John is on a farewell tour after performing for more than 50 years.
The show came together after A+E Networks and the History Channel, which footed the bill, asked the White House and John if they would be willing to collaborate to honor “everyday history-makers,” as well as John himself, people familiar with internal planning said.
It is not clear whether the show is to be broadcast. John has worked with A+E in the past on his global HIV/AIDS charity, the Elton John Foundation, which has raised more than US$525 million to combat the disease around the world.
John yesterday was also scheduled to play Nationals Park as part of his final tour. He opened the final leg of his North American farewell series in Philadelphia in July.
The president and first lady are fans of the singer. Biden wrote in a 2017 memoir about singing Crocodile Rock to his two young boys as he drove them to school, and again later to son Beau before he died of cancer at age 46.
“I started singing the lyrics to Beau, quietly, so just the two of us could hear it,” Biden wrote. “Beau didn’t open his eyes, but I could see through my own tears that he was smiling.”
John played the song on Friday, saying someone told him Biden used to sing it.
Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, was also a fan of John. He tried to get John to perform at his 2017 inauguration, but John declined, saying he did not think it was appropriate for a British performer to play at the swearing-in of a US president.
The White House insisted that Friday’s show was not an effort to incite Trump, who has praised John in his books and has often featured John’s music — including Rocket Man and Tiny Dancer — in his pre-rally playlists over the years.
Trump nicknamed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “rocket man” for his record of test-firing missiles.
John played Tiny Dancer on Friday to thunderous applause.
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