Elton John has performed a tour date for the very last time after his farewell tour concluded last night in Stockholm. The bittersweet ending in Sweden saw the culmination of the British music icon’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, a tour that commenced at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania in September 2018 and has therefore lasted for a staggering five years.
Elton ended his last ever tour show with the song that the tour had been named after, “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road“, but before doing so gave a heartfelt final speech to his adoring fans watching on. In it he said, “I’ve had the most wonderful career, beyond belief. Fifty-two years of pure joy, playing music. How lucky am I to play music? But I wouldn’t be sitting here and talking to you if it wasn’t for you.”
“You bought the singles, the CDs, the albums, the cassettes. But more importantly, you bought the tickets to the shows. And you know how much I love to play live. It’s been my lifeblood to play for you guys. You’ve been absolutely magnificent. Thank you.”
Watch Elton’s speech and subsequent performance of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” below:
The Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour has been comprised of a total of 333 shows and has sold 5.7 million tickets, grossing $887 millon, thereby making it the highest-grossing tour in history. It takes its name from both his hit song and his seventh studio album, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, released in 1973, after which his second ever concert tour was also named. This most recent mega tour has visited North America four times, Europe three times and Oceania twice and is a fitting end to the touring career of one of music’s absolute icons. Elton, however, has not completely ruled out performing live again, expressing that a “one-off thing” may occur in the future.
Included as part of the tour was Elton’s legendary headline set at this year’s edition of Glastonbury last month, a show that will be his last UK tour date. An estimated 120,000 fans watched the headline set live at Worthy Farm, with an additional 7.3 million people tuning in to see the legend perform on television.
The show included a special video message from Coldplay who were performing in the Swedish city of Gothenburg at the same time. In the message Coldplay frontman Chris Martin lovingly said, “We are so grateful for everything you’ve done for us. Everything you’ve done for the AIDS Foundation, anytime you’ve been kind to anybody. Everything your band has done over the thousands of shows you’ve done. We love you so much. We’re going to miss you so much.”
Watch Chris Martin’s video message to Elton below:
