After Paul McCartney, the Glastonbury music festival on Friday again rolled back the years by announcing Elton John as its headline act next June to close out his final UK tour.
The 75-year-old singer-songwriter said he “couldn’t be more excited” to make his debut at Britain’s best-known festival as he winds down a glittering live career.
John last month played his final US gigs as part of his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” world tour, which is due to end in Stockholm on July 8.
Prior to that, he will headline the closing Sunday slot at Glastonbury in southwest England on June 25, according to Emily Eavis, whose father Michael started the British event in 1970.
“This will be the final UK show of Elton’s last ever tour, so we will be closing the festival and marking this huge moment in both of our histories with the mother of all send-offs,” she said.
“We are so very happy to finally bring the Rocket Man to Worthy Farm!”
John announced the farewell world tour in 2018, but it was curtailed by the Covid pandemic and after he was injured in a fall.
The British singer has scored a hit single in every decade since the 1970s and amassed worldwide record sales of 300 million.
The tour features extravagant costumes, spectacular visuals and classics from his catalogue along with recent number one “Cold Heart”, which was a collaboration with pop star Dua Lipa.
John said his Glastonbury premiere would be a “fitting way” to say goodbye to his fans at home.
“They have been beyond brilliant, and have supported me through all the highs and lows of my career,” he said, paying tribute to Glastonbury’s “genuine, enthusiastic support for the best emerging talent”.
“I’ve been talking to Emily Eavis about it over the last few weeks and I can’t wait to embrace the spirit of the greatest festival in the world. It’s going to be incredibly emotional.”
In recent years, however, Glastonbury has paid less heed to new emerging talent on its main stages.
Last June, McCartney became the festival’s oldest solo headliner at the age of 80. He played a set of Beatles classics, aided by cameos from Bruce Springsteen and Dave Grohl.
Soul legend Diana Ross, 78, also performed this year, leading to some grumbling on social media at the “geriatric” profile and that only the rich and middle-aged could afford the ticket prices.
More than 100,000 standard tickets for next year’s June 21-25 festival sold out in just over an hour when they went on sale a month ago, despite the price rising to £335 ($410) from £280 this year.
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Iran has scrapped its morality police after more than two months of protests triggered by the arrest of Mahsa Amini for allegedly violating the country's strict female dress code, local media said Sunday.
From the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the overturning of abortion laws in the United States, here is a roundup of the biggest events to mark 2022.
Lionel Messi produced a moment of trademark quality to score the opener in a 2-1 win over Australia and help send Argentina into the quarter-finals of the World Cup on Saturday.
Burkina Faso on Saturday ordered the immediate suspension of Radio France Internationale (RFI) broadcasts, accusing it of putting out a "message of intimidation" attributed to a "terrorist chief".
On the roads leading to the front in Ukraine's war-torn east, every morning begins with a familiar scene — soldiers filling up trucks, sipping steaming coffee and catching up between bites of fresh hot dogs.
French fashion house Dior on Saturday held its first show at Egypt's ancient Giza pyramids, presenting its 2023 fall men's collection in the shadow of the millennia-old tombs.
Teenagers sentenced in public and immediately shot dead in North Korea’s Hyesan
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa, embroiled in scandal and under threat of impeachment, has no intention of resigning and will fight both politically and judicially, his spokesman said Saturday.
Thousands of villagers living near Indonesia's Mount Semeru were racing for refuge Sunday to the wail of emergency sirens as lava snaked towards their homes under a black sky after the volcano erupted.
The visit came less than a week since General Asim Munir took charge of Pakistan's powerful military, and were among his strongest public statements on arch-rival India since taking up the role. "Let me make it categorically clear, Pakistan's armed forces are ever ready, not only to defend every inch of our motherland, but to take the fight back to the enemy if ever war is imposed on us," he said, according to a statement from the military's media wing. India's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.
Major oil-producing countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed Sunday to maintain their current output levels in a climate of uncertainty and ahead of fresh sanctions against Moscow coming into force next week.
Young Athenians sharpen their shooting skills under the dazzling white lights of an outdoor basketball court, forever dreaming of emulating local hero and global star Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Turkey's inflation slowed in November for the first time since May 2021, official data showed on Monday, delivering a boost to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead of next year's election.
Australia on Monday started building a vast network of antennas in the Outback, its section of what planners say will eventually become one of the most powerful radio telescopes in the world.
Ukraine was targeted on Monday by a new wave of fatal Russian missiles, the latest attack to disrupt power across the country and pile pressure on its embattled critical infrastructure as temperatures plunge. The attacks came just after Moscow shrugged off a Western-imposed price cap on its oil exports, warning that the move would not disrupt its military campaign in Ukraine. Russian state-run media at the same time released footage of President Vladimir Putin driving a Mercedes car across the Crimea bridge that connects the annexed peninsula to the Russian mainland and was damaged in blast last month. The head of the central Zaporizhzhia region, Oleksandr Starukh, said that Russian missiles had left two people dead. Officials in regions in the east and south announced disruptions to water, electrical and heating services. "There are already strikes on energy infrastructure facilities and subsequently emergency power outages," the national electricity provider Ukrenergo said in a statement. Officials in the eastern region of Sumy and the southern regions of Odessa and Mykolaiv said residents were being subjected to disruptions in water, power or heating supplies as a result of the strikes. Nearly half the country's energy system has been damaged after months of systemic strikes on power infrastructure. Ukrainians have frequently been left in the cold and dark for hours at a time when the outdoor temperature has dropped below zero. "Charge power banks. Prepare reserves of water. And heads of enterprises of all forms of ownership: let people go home," said the head of Kryvyi Rig military administration, Oleksandr Vilkul. – Moscow vows to keep fighting – The $60-per-barrel price cap agreed by the European Union, G7 and Australia aims to restrict Russia's revenue while making sure Moscow keeps supplying the global market. "Russia's economy has all the necessary potential to fully meet the needs and requirements of the special military operation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, using Moscow's term for the Ukraine offensive. "These measures will not affect this," he said. Russia "will not recognise" the measures, which amounted to "a step towards destabilising the global energy markets" and would "change" oil prices, he added. The cap is the latest in a number of measures spearheaded by Western countries and introduced against Russia — the world's second-largest crude oil exporter — after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine over nine months ago. The measure comes on top of an EU embargo on seaborne deliveries of Russian crude oil that came into force on Monday. The embargo will prevent maritime shipments of Russian crude to the European Union, which account for two thirds of the bloc's oil imports from Russia, potentially depriving Moscow of billions of euros. The oil price cap aims to ensure that when Russia sells its crude to non-EU countries, who are not bound by the embargo, it is not sold at a price higher than $60 a barrel. The market price of a barrel of Russian Urals crude is currently around $65 dollars, just slightly higher than the $60 cap agreed, suggesting the measure may have only a limited impact in the short term. Kyiv, after initially welcoming the price ceiling, later said it would not do enough damage to Russia's economy. – 'Impossible to prepare' – Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky this weekend described the move as "weak". He added that Russia had already caused "huge losses" by "deliberately destabilising" the global energy market. The G7 nations — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — along with Australia have already said they are prepared to adjust the price ceiling if necessary. In recent months, gas prices have skyrocketed since Moscow halted deliveries to the EU in suspected retaliation for Western sanctions and the bloc struggled to find alternative energy suppliers. In the Ukrainian town of Borodianka outside the capital, Kyiv, where snow has already coated the ground, locals recently gathered around old wood-fired stoves inside tents to keep warm and cook food during the blackouts. "We are totally dependent on electricity… One day we had no electricity for 16 hours," Irina, who had come to the tent with her child, told AFP. Volunteer Oleg said it was hard to say how Ukraine would manage in the coming winter months. "It is impossible to prepare for this winter because no-one has lived in these conditions before," he said. bur/gil
Authorities in China's financial hub of Shanghai will from Monday scrap some testing requirements in the country's latest relaxing of its strict zero-Covid policy following nationwide protests unseen in decades.
Nearly 2,000 moved to temporary shelters as volcano releases searing gas clouds and rivers of lava
Once dominated by doom and gloom coverage of the dangers of the virus and scenes of pandemic chaos abroad, China's tightly controlled media has dramatically shifted tone as the country tentatively moves away from zero-Covid.
Hollywood's finest joined politicos including President Joe Biden for a rare night of Washington glitz Sunday, celebrating the newest Kennedy Center honorees, including George Clooney and U2.
World Cup super-sub Ritsu Doan believes the strength of Japan's bench could prove decisive as they prepare to face 2018 finalists Croatia in the last 16 on Monday.
