2023-07-11 09:09:31
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Stockholm: In the presence of fans from different countries, Elton John performed his last concert in Stockholm on Saturday evening, concluding a long career that has toured the world’s stages for more than half a century.
“Performing for you was the raison d’etre of my existence, and you were absolutely amazing,” the 76-year-old singer said to a jubilant audience.
Dressed in a strass-studded coat and wearing red glasses, the seventy-year-old star sat at the piano shortly after 8:00 pm (18:00 GMT), to the applause of the audience, to present his farewell concert, which he began with one of his most famous songs, “Bennie and the Jets”.
He then performed a series of songs, including “Philadelphia Freedom” and “I Guess Thats Why They Call It The Blues”, in front of an enthusiastic audience that wore sparkling blue or red glasses.
For more than two hours, Elton John performed some of her most famous songs, with a few pauses in which the artist stepped away from his piano and rose to thank his fans as well as his musicians and members of his band, some of whom have been performing for more than 40 years.
“I want to salute these musicians. They are really amazing (…) they are the best,” he said.
Shortly after the performance of “Border Song” dedicated to Aretha Franklin, “I’m Still Standing” enthralled the nearly 30,000 audience at the Tele2 Arena.
Before closing, Elton John had broadcast a message from Coldplay, who also performed in the Scandinavian country the same evening, specifically in Gothenburg (Göteborg) in western Sweden, where the band’s singer Chris Martin thanked him for his career and his commitments.
“The offer was amazing,” said Anton Bujonen, a 25-year-old Finnish banker.
Connie Johansson, a Swedish teacher who bought tickets to the concert four years ago, “we almost cried for him.”
The audience was expecting an emotional evening even before the curtain was raised.
“It’s going to be very emotional,” said Kate Bogai, a 25-year-old Polish student, who delayed her master’s exams to attend her star’s concert and waited outside the stadium for several hours before the show began.
Jenny Kinser, a woman in her fifties from Kentucky, wanted to attend the farewell tour “because I was so young” when Elton John performed his first concerts more than half a century ago.
For the occasion, she wore red strapless shorts and a red, yellow and brown T-shirt, an almost exact copy of the outfit Elton John chose during his first concert in Stockholm in 1971.
The newspaper “Expressen” confirmed that the last gig in Elton John’s career “closes an important chapter in the history of rock and roll.”
Saturday marked the second consecutive evening of a concert for the British star at the huge Swedish stadium. The two concerts were held in front of an audience that filled the stands at the end of the farewell tour that began five years ago and was partially disrupted by the Covid pandemic and the star’s hip surgery in 2021.
By the end of the “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour, Elton John had played 330 concerts, which before Stockholm covered many cities in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada, and attracted 6.25 million spectators.
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