Coldplay honour Elton John during final concert of farewell tour in Sweden

9 July, 2023

Elton John, Chris Martin of Coldplay

Coldplay paid tribute to Elton John during the final night of his ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road‘ tour in Stockholm via a video broadcast last night (July 8).

The music icon completed his world tour in the Swedish capital’s Tele2 Arena this weekend, after 333 shows and nearly five years.

During the show, Coldplay – who were performing in Gothenburg, Sweden at the very same time – appeared onscreen through a video broadcast which was beamed out at the musicians’ respective concerts.

Chris Martin and co. were performing John’s classic ‘Rocket Man’ at Gamla Ullevi stadium when the frontman called out to the musician.

“Elton, can you hear us, from Gothenburg?” he asked, before John appeared on the screen. “I can see you,” John replied with a smile.

“Elton, we want to say from all of us here, from all the fans and all the artists that you’ve loved and inspired and helped, we just love you so much,” Martin said.

“We are so grateful for everything you’ve done for us, everything you’ve done for the AIDS Foundation. Every time you’ve been kind to anybody.

“For everything you’ve done for LGBTQ. Everything you’ve done for fashion and eyewear. Everything you’ve done for sexiness, and love and dressing gowns. Everything you’ve done for music, everything Bernie has done for lyrics, everything your band has done over the thousands of shows you’ve done. We love you so much, happy retirement, and we’re going to miss you so much.”

John’s final song of the night – and the entire tour – was ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’. Before performing the song, Sir Elton gave a final speech to the reported 45,000 people in attendance to thank them for their support across his career.

“I’ve had the most wonderful career… beyond belief,” John said (via Rolling Stone).

“It’s been my lifeblood to play for you guys. You’ve been absolutely magnificent.”

John headlined Glastonbury 2023 last month – which also marked his last-ever UK show – with NME describing the career-spanning performance as “one of the festival’s best-ever headline sets” in a five-star review.

“Sir Elton left everything on the field. It was a Glasto set for the ages from a true all-time great. We’ll never see his kind again. So long, Rocketman – and thank you.”

The performance saw guest appearances from Steven Sanchez, Jacob Lusk from Gabriels, Rina Sawayama and The Killers‘ frontman Brandon Flowers.

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