Elton John said goodbye to his millions of fans around the world on Saturday night as he concluded his marathon farewell tour in Stockholm with one of his signature hits – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
Clad in a tailcoat accented with rhinestones and a red pair of his trademark large glasses, the pop superstar sat down at the piano shortly after 8:00 pm to cheers in the Swedish capital to open his farewell show with one of his most popular songs, “Bennie and the Jets.”
The 76-year-old singer, who has won five Grammy awards in a spectacular career spanning 50 years and nearly 4,600 performances worldwide, then went through his favorites and those of the crowd.
“It’s been my lifeblood to play for you guys, and you’ve been absolutely magnificent,” he told the audience at Sweden’s Tele2 Arena, the BBC reports.
Concert goers (right to left) Liz Williams, 59, and her daughters Brie, 17, Beatrice, 27 and Elizabeth Alt, 38, from the USA, outside the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, ahead of Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road show. (Yui Mok/PA Images via Getty Images)
Playing for more than two hours, John interspersed the songs with moments when he would get up and leave the piano to thank not only his fans but also his band and his crew, some of whom have been with him for more than 40 years, AFP sets out.
“I want to pay tribute to these musicians… They’re really incredible, they’ve been with me so long, some of them. And they are the best, I tell you, the best,” he said.
Shortly after a rendition of “Border Song” which he dedicated to Aretha Franklin, John’s “I’m Still Standing” brought the 30,000 fans at the Tele2 Arena to their feet.
Elton John performs at the final leg of his ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ tour in Stockholm, Saturday, July 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Caisa Rasmussen)
Before he took his encore, John screened a message from Coldplay, who were playing in the western Swedish city of Gothenburg, in which singer Chris Martin thanked him for his career and commitment.
“I want to appreciate my family, my sons, my husband, everything. I’ve earned it,” he said, acknowledging the role friends play in his life even as far back as 2010 when he played at the wedding of his pal Rush Limbaugh.
The guests of the late American radio host on that occasion included former Republican operative Karl Rove, former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Fox News talk-show host Sean Hannity, according to People magazine.
The man first known to his family as Reginald Kenneth Dwight played his last concerts in the United States in May and brought the curtain down on Britain’s annual Glastonbury Festival last month.