Elton John won an Emmy Award on Jan. 13. John received the trophy for Outstanding Variety Special (Live) at the 75th annual ceremony as the executive producer and star of “Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium.” The special was released on Disney+ on Jan. 27, 2023. The capture of the concert event stars John in his final North American show.
With the Emmy Award win, John is the 19th person to become an EGOT, a winner of an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony.
The 75th annual Emmy Awards had been postponed from September of 2023 to January of 2024 due to the union strikes by the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA.
John earned a Tony Award for writing the music to 2000’s “Aida,” which won the statue for Best Original Musical Score, an award John shares with lyricist Tim Rice. But John has made a great overall impact on Broadway. In 1975, John earned his first Broadway credit when songs of his were included in “Bette Midler’s Clams on the Half Shell Revue.” In 1982, more of his songs were featured in “Rock ’N Roll! The First 5,000 Years.”
Of course, John’s most lasting mark came in 1997 at the New Amsterdam Theatre with the Broadway bow of Disney’s “The Lion King,” for which John wrote the music. John earned his first Tony nomination for Best Original Musical Score for his work, and the show is still running 26 years later, now at the Minskoff Theatre. Currently, 90,000 people attend the show in nine productions on four continents every week. There have been 29 productions over the life of the show, seen by 115 million people. Performed over its lifetime in nine different languages (English, Japanese, German, Korean, French, Dutch, Spanish, Mandarin and Portuguese), there are currently nine productions of “The Lion King” around the world: Broadway, London, Paris, Hamburg, Madrid, Tokyo, São Paulo, Toronto and on tour across North America. The musical’s worldwide gross exceeds that of any film, Broadway show or other entertainment title in box office history.
John later wrote the music for 2006’s “Lestat” and 2010’s “Billy Elliot,” the latter for which he received another Tony nomination for Best Original Score. More of his songs were featured on Broadway in musicals such as 2010’s “Everyday Rapture” and 2018’s “Rocktopia.” He provided additional music for “Holler If Ya Hear Me” and “Almost Famous.” As a Broadway producer, John earned a Tony nomination for Best Play for 2010’s “Next Fall.”
A two-time Oscar winner, John won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” featured in the animated movie “The Lion King.” He won a second Oscar for Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song) for “I’m Gonna Love Me Again” in the biopic about his life and career, “Rocketman.”
John is a 35-time Grammy Award nominee, having won five. In 1987, John won the Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal Grammy Award for “That’s What Friends Are For” as part of Dionne and Friends, led by Dionne Warwick. Later, he won Best Instrumental Composition for “Basque.” In 1995, he won Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.” Three years later, in that same category, John won for “Candle in the Wind.” In 2001, John and Rice won Best Musical Show Album for “Aida.”
Notably, “Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium” beat out the broadcast of the 75th annual Tony Awards, which was nominated in the Outstanding Variety Special (Live) category along with “The Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show Starring Rihanna,” “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage” and “The Oscars.”
