So goodbye America – Elton John bids the US a rhapsodic farewell

Elton John has been saying goodbye to live performance since September 2018, when his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour kicked off. But now, some 250 gigs and one pandemic later, there was finally a sense of the curtains coming down for good as he played his last-ever show on American soil. Or so he claims – not everyone thinks this truly is goodnight and good luck.

“I don’t really believe it’s your last concert,” said Chris Martin before Elton took to the stage for a set at LA’s Dodger Stadium that came with the additional hoopla of a live-stream on Disney +. “Congratulations if it is.”

Martin and his Coldplay bandmates were among the luminaries rolled out to give “Sorry can’t be there but best wishes” salutations before the live-stream began. Also popping up to say “Hello, goodbye” were Victoria and David Beckham, and Lionel Richie. “Relax, enjoy this ride…kill it!,” he said, though odder still was Sting, who, for reasons best known to himself, conveyed his salutations sprawled across a table.

The concert proper started just after 4am UK time. During lockdown, live streams became a glum parody of live music, artists mugging manically in empty rooms while pretending to have fun. They were grim as grim can be. But with a live audience – at least half its members done up in Elton John glasses and sparkly wigs – the effect was much more euphoric.

The “BBC at Glasto vibes” were overwhelming as Elton and the band got going. The coverage pivoted from aerial tracking shots to close-ups of the singer, at his piano, bopping audience members at the bottom of the frame. With budget clearly not an issue, Disney + was flexing its muscles as the live-streaming wars heat up; early next year, Netflix is to raise the ante by live-broadcasting a gig by comedian Chris Rock.

It wasn’t by coincidence that Elton was staging his big US farewell at Dodger Stadium. This was the backdrop to his iconic double-whammy of gigs in 1975, as immortalised by Terry O’Neill’s photographs. Those shows saw Elton confirm his conquest of America by performing in a glittering baseball outfit to a crowd that seemed to stretch to the horizon. It was peak Elton, peak Seventies LA and peak rhine-stone jumpsuits.

Dodger Stadium 1975 fired the starter pistol on Elton’s imperial phase. The mood at his live-streamed concert (the last of three 2022 dates at the venue) was inevitably more autumnal. And after four years touring the same set, the effect was slick, if never quite on auto-pilot.

Elton focused on his glory years, his saccharine Circle of Life Disney period sensibly omitted. A riveting revue opened with the bluesy whoosh of Benny and the Jets and from there encompassed 50 shades of Elton. There was melancholic Elton (I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues), heart-on-sleeve Elton (Tiny Dancer), and Elton as intergalactic Bowie knock-off (Rocket Man).

At 75, he was a fount of elder-gent energy, and his piano playing retained a molten lustre. He was sufficiently confident in the depth of his catalogue, moreover, to indulge himself with some lesser-known moments. These included a chugging Levon and a heavy metal-esque mash-up of Funeral for a Friend and Love Lies Bleeding, which featured Elton’s piano moving at speed on an invisible treadmill.

Several big-name guests had been advertised. Brandi Carlile was an uncharismatic substitute for George Michael during her and Elton’s duet on Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me. Later, Kiki Dee came out to help him belt out Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, their number one from 1976 and a hit John rarely performs live.

The big superstar moment arrived during the encore as Dua Lipa – a fan and protégée of Elton’s – trooped on to help with a disco-fied re-imagining of Cold Heart. The encore also saw Elton acknowledge the significance of those Dodger shows in 1975 by returning in a glitter-ball dressing gown modelled on his stage wear from 47 years ago.

With fireworks and confetti sparkling, he then brought on his songwriting foil Bernie Taupin and then, his partner David Furnish and their two sons. All of which was by way of leading up to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. As throughout the tour, the performance ended with Elton ascending stairs and then vanishing – taking his own gold-paved highway into the great beyond.

Where will it lead? Well, in the short term, it will bring him home to Britain, where another leg of the tour kicks off next year. But if this truly was Elton’s American goodbye, US fans had a farewell to remember. Disney +’s unfussy documenting of a rhapsodic concert ensured that everyone else could share in the momentousness of the occasion, too.

Available to stream on Disney+. Touring the UK from March 23 to June 18 2023; tickets: eltonjohn.com