Elton John Pays Tribute To George Michael At Glastonbury With “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me”

Elton John performed on Sunday night at the Glastonbury Festival and dedicated his performance to his late friend George Michael‘s 60th birthday by singing Michael’s hit song “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me.”

John started off the two-hour concert by introducing his band members and announced to the crowd, “It’s a very, very special day today and I wonder how I’m going to approach it.”

He continued on to introduce Michael, saying, “One of Britain’s most fantastic songwriters, singers, artists was George Michael,” to which the crowd cheered. 

Before he started the song he added, “He was my friend, he was an inspiration, and today would have been his 60th birthday. So I want to dedicate this song to his memory. And all of the music he left us with, which is so gorgeous. This is for you, George.”

Michael passed away seven years ago on December 25, 2016, from natural causes. 

John and Michael first performed this song together live in 1985 at Live Aid in a concert together. In March 1991, John starred as a surprise guest in Michael’s concert at Wembley Arena where they sang the song once again. After this, they decided to record it as a live duet and it was released later that year. This version was a hit and reached the number one spot in the U.K. pop charts and even earned a Grammy nomination. 

Throughout his set, John had four guest singers join him on stage, including Steven Sanchez, Jacob Lusk, Brandon Flowers and Rina Sawayama.

There were two additional headliners that performed before John at the festival. The Arctic Monkeys sang on Friday night and Gun N’ Roses followed on Saturday. 

John shared several posts on Instagram dedicated to his performance over the weekend. They included a video of different clips of John singing and photos of him in his gold outfit along with his famed sunglasses, which he has never performed without.

John said that this performance will most likely be his last in the U.K. He is currently on his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, which will be his final tour. When it is over, he will be retiring to spend time with his two sons, Zachary and Elijah, and husband, David Furnish. 

The last date of the tour is scheduled to be on July 3 in Stockholm.