After 50 years on the road, Elton John has brought a close to his touring days with an emotionally-charged show in Sweden.
The megastar played his last UK date at Glastonbury festival last month and brought his 330-date marathon Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour to an end on Saturday night at the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm.
The 76-year-old singer-songwriter has been travelling the globe on his farewell tour since 2018, playing to more than six million fans, which has been paused at various points due to the pandemic and shows in Europe and the UK had to be rescheduled due to the veteran singer sustaining an injury to his hip after he suffered a fall in 2021.
The Stockholm show marks the end of touring days which has included more than 4,000 performances in over 80 countries since launching his first tour in 1970.
During his career spanning more than six decades, he has performed on some of the world’s biggest stages, has sold more than 300 million records worldwide and won many accolades including two Oscars for best original score.
The first was awarded in 1994 for classic track Can You Feel the Love Tonight from The Lion King soundtrack while the second came in 2019 for (I’m Gonna) Love Me Again from the Rocketman soundtrack, alongside songwriter Bernie Taupin.
He is also a five-time Grammy winning artist and was also among the star-studded line-up who performed during the famous Live Aid benefit concert in 1985 which also featured Queen, Madonna and David Bowie.
John was knighted for services to music and charity in 1998 was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to music and to charity in November 2021.
He was awarded the prestigious honour in acknowledgement of a glittering career in music and his campaigning work on Aids.
After receiving the prestigious national award, the singer said he had been spurred on to make new music and raise Aids awareness.
He also has a long history with the royal family, who were said to be fans of the singer-songwriter back in the 1970s, and has since been a guest at many royal events.
The Rocketman singer was close friends with Diana, Princess of Wales, sharing a passion for raising awareness of Aids, and performed his hit Candle In The Wind at her funeral, adapting the lyrics to reflect her life.
The song tapped into the nation’s grief and went on to become the biggest-selling single in UK chart history.
A biopic based on the life and music of John was released in 2019, with Taron Egerton taking on the role of the pop star.
The film delves into his struggles with his sexuality, drugs and alcohol.
John admitted that the movie made him emotional but added he “wouldn’t have changed a thing about it”.
The singer and his long-term partner David Furnish entered into a civil partnership in 2005 and nine years later in December 2014, the couple married shortly after same-sex marriage was legalised in the UK.
Announcing the end of his touring five years ago, John said his “priorities have changed”, adding that he and his husband’s two sons, Elijah and Zachary, had changed their lives.
The veteran musician confirmed that he will “never be touring again” at the Sweden show on Saturday, but revealed he may do a “one-off thing” sometime in the future – adding that would be “miles away”.
The musician is expected to continue working on making music after releasing his collaborations with Dua Lipa, Stevie Wonder, Britney Spears and Ed Sheeran as part of his The Lockdown Sessions releases in 2022.
