MIAMI — Elton John is not only still standing through one of the hottest streaks in his six-decade career, but he’s feeling frisky.
So much so that Sir Elton, a stadium- or arena-sized act if ever there was one, wants to get intimate with South Florida fans.
The singer-songwriter-musician is doing so in the form of a Sunday night concert date on Feb. 27 at the 7,000-seat Hard Rock Live venue at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, site of The Guitar Hotel.
What makes this one-off date so different from his ongoing Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour is the smaller size of the venue compared to the official Farewell tour that is playing 20,000-seat arenas like the FTX in downtown Miami.
Elton’s Sunday concert is in keeping with Hard Rock Live’s new rebranding strategy that has seen arena- and stadium-level acts like the Rolling Stones, Guns ‘n Roses, Billy Joel and, coming May 25, Paul McCartney opting to play the South Florida flagship Seminole concert site while also playing larger venues where you would expect to see them.
For instance, Elton’s main Farewell tour, which began in 2018 and was planned to run into 2021 but halted for nearly two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, resumed in New Orleans in January and still has a Miami date scheduled for April 28 at FTX Arena.
That Miami Farewell Yellow Brick Road show is the make-up date for the postponed May 30, 2020, concert date.
McCartney, too, is showcasing a more intimate production at Hard Rock Live before playing his Got Back Tour at Camping World Stadium in Orlando on May 28.
Hard Rock Live’s strategy
Keith Sheldon, president of entertainment for Hard Rock International and Seminole Gaming, said that with music and entertainment as the rebuilt venue’s core DNA, the focus for the flagship Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood is to “amplify the property’s status as a world-class global destination while reinforcing the iconic nature of our brand.”
And you can’t get more amplified and iconic than Elton John, the Stones and McCartney.
“We do that by consistently playing in the big event business — meaning stadium and arena level acts, award shows and unique performances not happening anywhere else in the world — to ensure that one of the top resorts in the world is hosting the top entertainment in the world,” Sheldon told the Miami Herald in an email interview.
“With acts like Sir Elton John performing this weekend and Sir Paul McCartney coming in May, our goal is to continue to build on the success we’ve enjoyed from hosting marquee entertainment like the Rolling Stones, Guns ‘n Roses, Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, Metallica and the Miss Universe competition,” Sheldon said.
The venue is getting into the spirit by lighting the 450-foot Guitar Hotel facade with a special Elton John theme. In addition, an Elton John memorabilia display will be open to the public ahead of the concert at The Oculus on the property. The memorabilia display will be similar to ones that were held for Billy Joel and the Stones.
One would be hard pressed to name another venue in the U.S. — especially a mid-sized house like the South Florida Seminole location — that, in a six-month stretch dating to the Stones’ November concert on its No Filter Tour through Elton in February and McCartney in May, hosted these three particular superstar caliber acts this closely together.
Elton’s popularity resurge
In Elton’s case, the Hard Rock Live date and the coming Farewell Yellow Brick Road revisit in Miami, come at a time when the 74-year-old superstar is dominating pop culture in a way he hasn’t since he ran through a string of seven consecutive No. 1 albums from 1972’s “Honky Chateau” to 1975’s “Rock of the Westies.”
Not that he was ever idle. Elton placed at least one single in the Top 40 every calendar year from 1970’s “Your Song” through 1999’s “Written in the Stars” for a total of 59 before “Cold Heart” extended his run. His life story was the subject of an acclaimed film, “Rocketman,” in 2019. His memoir, “Me,” was a New York Times best-seller that year, too.
In February, Elton crowned Pollstar’s first Artist Power Index, a new weekly ranking of the top 50 music artists based on reported box-office figures from concert touring along with streaming, radio airplay and social media data.
Elton’s consistently sold-out Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour helped fuel that No. 1 ranking out of a 1,000 artists, putting the elder pop statesmen ahead of rappers Jack Harlow and DaBaby and country stars Kane Brown and Luke Bryan. But Elton’s success on the road has never waned.
Cold Heart
What is surprising is the unexpected acceptance of new Elton John music on youth-leaning radio stations and through single and album sales. Elton’s current single, “Cold Heart (Pnau Remix),” a collaboration with contemporary British pop star Dua Lipa that mashes together four Elton John-Bernie Taupin compositions atop a rubbery electronic dance pulse, earned Elton a No. 15 streaming and No. 13 airplay ranking, also out of a thousand. The song’s figures aided his overall index score.
“Cold Heart (Pnau Remix),” released in August ahead of his current album, “The Lockdown Sessions,” which debuted in Billboard’s Top 10 in October, is not just an unlikely Top 10 Billboard single hit in America — Elton’s first since his “Candle in the Wind” tribute to Princess Diana after her death in 1997. “Cold Heart,” currently ranked No. 1 on Apple Music’s songs chart, is a smash in Britain, too.
In his native England, Elton pulled off a 1964 Beatles- or 1978 Bee Gees-styled chart coup by holding down all three top positions. In December, Elton’s Christmas collaboration with Ed Sheeran, “Merry Christmas,” hit No. 1, sending “Cold Heart” down a notch to No. 2 and a seasonal spoof collaboration with LadBaby, “Sausage Rolls for Everyone,” was at No. 3.
The Hard Rock show
It’s safe to assume Elton’s Hard Rock Live audience will hear a solo performance of “Cold Heart.” Elton added the hit to his Farewell Yellow Brick Road set list just before the encore in January.
Aside from that, the only other certainty is that the concert, to be performed by Elton with his longtime band that includes Nigel Olsson on drums and Davey Johnstone on guitar, will feel more intimate in a 7,000-seat venue as compared to a venue more than twice that size such as FTX Arena.
Elton John and his management and promotion team haven’t commented as to details on the Hard Rock Live one-off. Spokeswoman Fran Curtis at Rogers and Cowan just said that he “is looking forward to playing Hard Rock.”
Pianist and Miami Beach High School graduate Adam Chester is Elton’s stand-in at rehearsals for his tours. He told the Miami Herald he rehearsed the Elton John band in New Orleans when the tour started again in January and that he knew about the Hard Rock show but was not sure if the set list is the same.
Will EJ alter his list by featuring some deeper cuts as opposed to the hits focus of the larger tour? That idea is something Elton told Rolling Stone he would like to do in occasional concerts at smaller venues once the Farewell Tour ends.
“When I do finish this world tour, if I do do a concert again, it will be similar to what Kate Bush did at [London’s] Hammersmith Apollo” in 2014. “She came on and played for three weeks to 4,000 people a night. If I do that, I don’t want to sing ‘Crocodile Rock’ again and I don’t really want to sing ‘Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting’ again. They are wonderful songs. They have done me very well. But there are other songs that I want to sing,” Elton told the magazine.
But if getting closer to the legendary pop star is to your liking, Sunday Night’s alright for that desire.
If you go
What: Elton John and His Band in concert
Where: Hard Rock Live Hollywood, 1 Seminole Way
When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday Feb. 27
Tickets: $655, $505, $405, $305 and $155 via www.myhrl.com but tickets through the resale and secondary markets may vary in price.
———
