{"id":119016,"date":"2024-12-27T18:01:31","date_gmt":"2024-12-27T18:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/12\/27\/the-year-in-music-2024-after-a-year-of-highs-and-lows-elton-johns-still-standing\/"},"modified":"2024-12-27T18:01:31","modified_gmt":"2024-12-27T18:01:31","slug":"the-year-in-music-2024-after-a-year-of-highs-and-lows-elton-johns-still-standing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/12\/27\/the-year-in-music-2024-after-a-year-of-highs-and-lows-elton-johns-still-standing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Year in Music 2024: After a year of highs and lows, Elton John&#8217;s still standing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/syndication.abcaudio.com\/files\/2024-12-26\/ABC_Audio_TheYearInMusic_2024_v02_ag_2.jpg\" alt><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Elton John<\/strong>&#8216;s first official year off from touring the world didn&#8217;t leave the Rocket Man any less busy, but he had to deal with some major ups and downs throughout 2024. Thankfully, there\u00a0seemed to be more highs than lows\u00a0\u2014 here&#8217;s a rundown.<\/p>\n<p>The highs:<\/p>\n<p>In January, Elton became\u00a0<span class=\"s1\">the 19th\u00a0<\/span>entertainer\u00a0<span class=\"s1\">to\u00a0become an\u00a0EGOT winner when his Disney+ special\u00a0<\/span><em><span class=\"s1\">Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium<\/span><\/em><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0won an Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special (Live). His tally now includes six Grammys, two Oscars, one Tony and one Emmy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">In February, Elton auctioned off the contents of his home in Atlanta for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christies.com\/en\/events\/the-collection-of-sir-elton-john-goodbye-peachtree-road\/what-is-on?cid=EM_SEM%7CACCT:ChristiesIconicCollections%7CCMP:EJ0224ONLINEFeb24BrandUS%7CAG:A%7CENGINE:GOOGLE%7CNT:SEARCH%7CRG:US%7CBANNER:%7CIMG:%7CKW:christie%27s%20elton%20john%20auction%7CMT:p%7CSID:EJ0224&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gclid=CjwKCAiAlJKuBhAdEiwAnZb7lXgexh4C67D-0ty8ShgJvElSoPEO3r0ZKJ8GWveW1zeACA_ah1lCDBoCnhIQAvD_BwE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span class=\"s1\">more than $20 million<\/span><\/a><span class=\"s1\">. In March, he hosted his annual Oscar Viewing Party and raised nearly $11 million for his AIDS Foundation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Also in March, Elton and his songwriting partner,\u00a0<strong>Bernie Taupin<\/strong>, were honored with the prestigious\u00a0Gershwin Prize for Popular Music. Among the acts paying tribute to them at the ceremony with live performances were <strong>Metallica<\/strong>,<strong> Joni Mitchell<\/strong>,<strong> Annie Lennox<\/strong>,<strong> Garth Brooks<\/strong>,<strong> Charlie Puth <\/strong>and<strong> Brandi Carlile<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">In the fall, the documentary <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fQGf_nJ1E9w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><span class=\"s1\">Elton John: Never Too Late<\/span><\/em><\/a><em><span class=\"s1\">, <\/span><\/em><span class=\"s1\">detailing his career and complicated personal life,\u00a0premiered at multiple film festivals worldwide. A new song Elton and Bernie co-wrote for the project with Brandi Carlile and producer <strong>Andrew Watt<\/strong>, also called &#8220;Never Too Late,&#8221; won a Hollywood Music In Media Award for Best Song from a Documentary Film. It&#8217;s also eligible for Oscar consideration.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Elton&#8217;s new musical based on<\/span><em><span class=\"s1\"> The Devil Wears Prada<\/span><\/em><span class=\"s1\"> opened in London&#8217;s West End with <strong>Vanessa Williams<\/strong> starring as fearsome fashion editor Miranda Priestley; so far it appears to be doing well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">In December, <\/span><em><span class=\"s1\">Time\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span class=\"s1\">named Elton its 2024 Icon of the Year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">The lows:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">In November 2023, Elton told the crowed at the Rock &amp; Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony that he and Bernie had just completed a new album. In his end-of-year message to fans in December, Elton promised a new album would be released in 2024. In May, Bernie said, &#8220;Elton and I have an album coming out soon &#8230; it\u2019s all written and recorded.&#8221; But the album never appeared, and Elton hinted it was because of a major medical issue he dealt with in 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">In early September, Elton <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/C_dmxp1iX4P\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span class=\"s1\">told fans<\/span><\/a><span class=\"s1\"> he was dealing with a &#8220;severe eye infection&#8221; that had left him with &#8220;only limited vision in one eye.&#8221; Elton\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodmorningamerica.com\/Culture\/video\/elton-john-opens-losing-eyesight-116194180\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span class=\"s1\">told ABC News&#8217;<\/span><\/a><span class=\"s1\"> <strong>Robin Roberts<\/strong> in November, &#8220;I unfortunately lost my eyesight in my right eye &#8230; and it\u2019s been four months now since I haven\u2019t been able to see. And my left eye\u2019s not the greatest.\u201d Asked for an update on the album, Elton said, \u201cI don&#8217;t know &#8230;\u00a0going into the studio and recording, I don\u2019t know, because I can\u2019t see a lyric, for start.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Elton went on to say, &#8220;I can&#8217;t see anything. I can&#8217;t read anything, I can&#8217;t watch anything.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Not long after that, Elton appeared at a charity performance of <\/span><em><span class=\"s1\">The Devil Wears Prada<\/span><\/em><span class=\"s1\"> and told the audience, &#8220;Now I have lost my sight. I haven&#8217;t been able to see the performance but I have enjoyed listening to it.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s1\">Meanwhile, Elton&#8217;s other musical, <\/span><em><span class=\"s1\">Tammy Faye<\/span><\/em><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0\u2014 based on the life of the late televangelist <strong>Tammy Faye Bakker<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 opened on Broadway Nov. 14 but closed on Dec. 8 after just 29 regular performances.\u00a0<\/span>According to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/11\/19\/theater\/tammy-faye-broadway-musical-closing.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>The New York Times<\/em><\/a>, the show, which cost $25 million, won awards in London but was poorly received once it moved to Broadway. Indeed,\u00a0<em>The Times\u00a0<\/em>called it &#8220;strangely bland&#8221; and said the box office receipts were &#8220;disastrous.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Elton John&#8216;s first official year off from touring the world didn&#8217;t leave the Rocket Man any less busy, but he had to deal with some major ups and downs throughout 2024. Thankfully, there\u00a0seemed to be more highs than lows\u00a0\u2014 here&#8217;s a rundown. The highs: In January, Elton became\u00a0the 19th\u00a0entertainer\u00a0to\u00a0become an\u00a0EGOT<span class=\"more-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/2024\/12\/27\/the-year-in-music-2024-after-a-year-of-highs-and-lows-elton-johns-still-standing\/\">Read More &rarr;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[425],"tags":[701,702,227,527,700,490,528,276,703,648],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119016"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lascrucestoday.com\/magic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}