Everything
Music’s night of nights is almost here. Amidst a slew of awards ceremonies for the film industry, musicians and artists will have their cake come Sunday evening as the world’s most celebrated head to Los Angeles for the Grammy’s. The likes of Kendrick Lamar and Drake will be looking be looking to clean up in 2019, with Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson and Dua Lipa lined up to perform during the evening.
But what makes the Grammy’s the pinnacle of music isn’t just its award winners, rather the iconic and sometimes fleeting moments in its prestigious history. Namely, any aspect involving Elton John. Clad in avant garde prints and outlandish embellishments, his look alone is enough to make headlines, but what is revisited time and time again is his 2001 performance with Eminem.
Following the drop of his 2000 track The Marshall Mather LP, controversy was sparked as the gay community, including the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) criticised Eminem for his “homophobic” lyrics. Protestors stood outside the awards night holding signs emblazoned with “Award Music, Not Hate.” But standing strong against the criticism, the rapper shutdown the hate when he joined forces with Elton John.
Always a strong supporter of Eminem, John told the Los Angeles Times that he would “rather tear down walls between people than build them up. If I thought for one minute that he was hateful, I wouldn’t do it.”
Appearing on stage together, they performed “Stan” with John’s smooth lyrics and Eminem’s strong rap albeit the decision at the time causing outrage. Now however, the collaboration has gone down in Grammy’s history.
Since then, Elton John has gone on to perform with the likes of Lady Gaga and more recently Miley Cyrus.
Sir #EltonJohn performs with #MileyCyrus at the #GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/mWRF0SkfBC
— Leon Carrington (@LeonCarrington) January 29, 2018
