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Elton John is on his farewell tour and is playing his greatest hits in the Zurich Hallenstadion. That creates euphoria.
A black tailcoat, which is extensively decorated with blue, white and red rhinestones, plus red glasses, also framed with rhinestones: No, Elton John doesn’t skimp on the wardrobe at his farewell concert in the Hallenstadion in Zurich. He has never done that since his musical beginnings in the late 1960s.
Ennobled Legend
In his more than 50-year career, Elton John has sufficiently proven that he has more on the box than fancy outfits. Over 350 million albums sold and two Oscars have brought the Englishman not only an accolade from Queen Elizabeth II, but also legendary status.
Even if the 76-year-old’s legs seem to be a bit stiff now, this doesn’t detract from Sir Elton John’s panache and panache. As soon as he sits down at the grand piano and grips the keys with verve, his virtuosity and contagious joy of playing are there.
time travel
“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” is not only the name of the farewell tour, but also of one of his best-known albums, which Elton John released in 1973. The tonality of the evening is thus also set: it will be a nostalgic journey through time into the past, but it will not degenerate into sentimentality. Sir Elton loves to rock for that.
hit fireworks
It’s a firework of hits that he and his six musicians deliver in the Hallenstadion. “Bennie and the Jets”, “Tiny Dancer”, “Sad Song” and “Crocodile Rock” “I’m Still Standing” and whatever his anthems are called. And of course the farewell ballad to Norma Jeane aka Marilyn Monroe “Candle in the Wind” should not be missing.
And then there is a monumentally sprawling version of «Rocket Man», which makes it clear that Sir Elton John is not the only exceptional musician on stage. “My band kicks ass” he rightly says.
Empathic icon
No question: Sir Elton has become an icon. His concert at the Glastonbury Festival was watched by a total of 7 million on TV. In Zurich’s Hallenstadion he gets up after every song, grins broadly through the gap between his teeth and gets frenetic applause from the audience.
Everyone thinks Elton John is good. Maybe it’s the mixture of divaism, charisma and humor that makes it so special. Maybe it’s his empathy. At the concert on Saturday, for example, he dedicated “Don’t Let the Sun go Down on Me” to the recently deceased Tina Turner and her husband Erwin Bach.
music history
Maybe it’s the fact that with Elton John there is a man on stage who has always gone his own musical way and has never closed himself off to the zeitgeist. This is also shown by his collaborations with Dua Lipa and Ed Sheeran. But you definitely like Elton John because he has a feeling for really big melodies. And everyone is aware of this evening: A piece of music history says goodbye to the stage.
(Elton John’s last appearance on British soil at Glastonbury 2023)
above the stars
It’s hard to imagine that the indefatigable creator would now want to retire so that he can spend more time with his husband and two sons in the future.
At the very end, Elton John takes an elevator up to the stage and disappears between galaxies. Not only the Rocket Man from the song has arrived above the stars, but also Elton John himself. High up, in the pop Olympus.