“Thank you so much for the extremely kind invitation to play at your opening,” John wrote. “I’ve given it a lot of thought and as a British citizen I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to play at the inauguration of an American President. Please accept my apology.” On Friday night, Sir Elton made a different statement in the form of the six-act, solo piano concert he played to a crowd of 2,000 on the South Lawn of the White House at the invitation of President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. Elton John ‘surprised’ and in tears after Biden surprises him with medal “I don’t know what to say. What a dump!” John said, laughing, in a shiny black blazer as he looked through red glasses at the illuminated columns of the South Portico towering above him, playing under a glass-lined stage as members of the Marine Corps Band breezed along. of the steps. on the Truman Balcony in red uniforms. “I’ve played some places in the past that have been nice, but this is probably the icing on the cake.” Tears and joy were more the order of the day than politics at an event the Bidens said they intended to be a concert for the American people called “A Night When Hope and History Rhyme.” The evening ended with the president surprising John with the National Humanities Medal, at which the singer broke down in tears, but it felt like a milestone in the larger message of the Elton John AIDS Foundation’s 30th anniversary celebration and the bipartisan unity needed to end the disease by 2030 — as John and the United Nations have said is the goal. The last time John played at the White House was at a state dinner in 1998 during the Clinton administration in honor of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. According to a video feed of the event and interviews with attendees (media access was limited), John appeared genuinely excited as he performed under a glass-lined stage, with the audience surrounding all sides of his stage. He had many bigger hits: ‘Your Song’, ‘Tiny Dancer’, ‘Rocket Man’, ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’, ‘Crocodile Rock’ and ‘I’m Still Standing’. Teachers, first responders and LGBTQ activists made up the largest portion of the crowd and were all allowed to bring a plus one. They were the ones John thanked first, long before he recognized the Bidens: “They’re the heroes to me.” Other guests included Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband Chasten, and Attorney General Merrick Garland — not to mention actress Anna Kendrick and John’s dear friend Billie Jean King. For those who recognized her, Ruby Bridges, the civil rights activist who became one of the first black children to integrate New Orleans’ all-white public school system when she was 6, may have been the most impressive luminary there. Charlotte Clymer, a writer and LGBTQ activist based in DC, who was pleasantly surprised to receive the invitation, found herself overcome with emotion. “I wouldn’t even say bipartisan, I felt more nonpartisan,” she told the Washington Post. “Everyone was there because they cared about people with HIV and AIDS. And of course they wanted to see Elton John play.” The White House had focused on inviting members of vulnerable communities, and Clymer said the crowd felt very diverse — racially diverse, politically diverse, even gender diverse. For once, she added, “I wasn’t the only trans person at one of these events, which was nice to see.” As appealing as the narrative of Dark Brandon subtweeting his predecessor with his favorite musician is, this was not an event instigated by John as a form of high-level trolling. The conversation had started with an invitation to a “History Talks” banquet Saturday at Constitution Hall, featuring Serena Williams and former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, sponsored by the History Channel and A&E, which also sponsored the concert. . But that set date was also the day of John’s concert in the Nationals Park area, ‘so it turned into an opportunity to perform the night before on the South Lawn of the White House. And, you know, what a stunningly beautiful setting,” David Furnish, John’s husband and manager, said Sunday. “Elton loved the idea, and the whole night was pitched to us as a nonpartisan event, even though President Biden is in the White House,” Furnish continued, “but a nonpartisan event that was really going to talk about common humanity, healing through of unity, of charity. .” In the past, however, John has had a friendly relationship with Trump. He performed at the former president’s third wedding, and Trump even went around telling people he had secured John for the inauguration. Despite John asking him not to, Trump often used “Tiny Dancer” at his rallies. He also gave the nickname “Rocket Man” to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Instead, at that concert, John recognized a different Republican, former first lady Laura Bush, who had come with her daughter Jenna Bush Hager and her children, saying the Bush administration created the President’s Emergency Plan USA for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, “was the most incredible thing,” adding, “We would never have gotten this far without the Bush administration giving us that money.” He even gave a shout-out to Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (RS.C.) as a supporter of the fight against AIDS, which, John said, “was always to his credit.” As John made his set list, Furnish said, there was only one song he wanted to make sure he sang: “Crocodile Rock.” Years ago, when he and then-Vice President Biden were on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” That same night, Biden told him that, as a single father, he used to drive his two sons around and sing this song in the car. Later, Furnish said, he and John went to visit President Barack Obama at the White House while, unbeknownst to them, Biden’s son Bo was terminally ill with brain cancer and unconscious in the hospital. Biden had asked John to meet with his staff, “which I thought really said a lot about him,” Furnish said. As Furnish recalls, Biden went to the hospital and told the unconscious Beau that Elton John had stopped by the White House that day and sang “Crocodile Rock” to him. “He did not regain consciousness. But we were told he smiled and definitely, you know, caused something,” Furnish said. “So we knew it was a song with a real journey that was on a real journey for the president. And so it was important for Elton to be included in the set.” Before launching into “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” John also recognized Jeanne White-Ginder, mother of Ryan White, who had died of AIDS-related complications in 1990 and in his short life had became a symbol of the cruelty suffered by the victims of the epidemic. The White family was John’s entry into becoming an AIDS activist. He had met them, “and I had to love them and look at them and they faced such terrible hostility,” he said from the stage. “And yet when Ryan was dying in the hospital in Indianapolis, in the last week of his life where I went and tried to help Jean do humble things, there was no hate. There is no hate. There was simply forgiveness.” “It was a very moving experience to see someone who gives so much of himself and doesn’t want any attention,” White-Ginder told The Post on Sunday, recalling those days. Six months after White’s death, John went to rehab for cocaine and alcohol addiction and got sober. On stage Friday, he said the family “saved my life. The moment when Biden presented John with the National Humanities Medal was a complete surprise not only to John, but also to Furnish, who as his manager usually knows everything. John had said he was absolutely “amazing” and broke down in tears during his report. “Elton had no idea he was getting the medal. It’s very rare to see Elton be speechless about anything, and when this came out, he was completely bemused,” Furnish said. “And just everybody felt the love.”
