Coldplay Pay Tribute to Elton John During Final Farewell Concert in Sweden

Coldplay paid tribute to Elton John during his touring final bow via live video, which the artists’ broadcasted live at their respective concerts in Sweden last night, July 8. John wrapped-up his monumental five-year Farewell Yellow Brick Road concerts — signaling his end of the road as a touring artist — at the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.

Coldplay was in the midst of performing “Rocket Man” at their own show at Gamla Ullevi stadium in Gothenburg, when frontman Chris Martin called out to John, as seen in fan footage from the show.

“Elton, can you hear us, from Gothenburg?” Martin said as screens displayed John at his own show in Stockholm. “Here we are in Gothenburg with everybody here, waving hello. Can you see us, Mr. Elton?” John then responded with a smile, “I can see you.”

“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’re 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, everything you’ve done for LGBTQ, everything you’ve done for fashion and eyewear, everything you’ve done for sexiness and love… Everything you’ve done for music… The thousands of shows you’ve done, we love you so much.”

“Happy retirement, and we’re going to miss you so much, man. Here’s Gothenburg going crazy,” Martin concluded as the crowd cheered and chanted John’s name.

While John said this was his final tour, he told Rolling Stone in 2020 that if he did decide to do a concert again, he’d consider the possibility of a residency. “It [would be] similar to what Kate Bush did at the Hammersmith Apollo [in 2014],” he said. “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 like ‘Original Sin’ and ‘American Triangle’ that I want to sing.”