New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Elton John is now an EGOT winner. John won an Emmy on Monday for his Disney+ concert special,
Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium. He is the 19th person to achieve the EGOT status. The iconic artist won a Tony Award in 2000 for Best Original Score for Aida with Tim Rice.
He was awarded with his first Oscar in 1995 for "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" from the Lion King, which he also won with Rice. His second Oscar came in 2020 when he won Best Original Song for "(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again" from Rocketman, which was co-written with Bernie Taupin. He has won six Grammys, being awarded with the Grammy Legend Award in 2001.
Previous EGOT winners include: Mel Brooks, Viola Davis, John Gielgud, Whoopi Goldberg, Marvin Hamlisch, Helen Hayes, Audrey Hepburn, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, Robert Lopez, Alan Menken, Rita Moreno, Mike Nichols, Tim Rice, Richard Rodgers, Scott Rudin, Jonathan Tunick, and Andrew
Lloyd Webber.
Elton has achieved 26 gold, 38 platinum or multi-platinum and 1 diamond, 40 platinum or multi-platinum, and 23 gold albums, over 50 Top 40 hits, and he has sold more than 300 million records worldwide. He holds the record for the biggest selling single of all time, Candle In The Wind 1997, which sold over 33 million copies. Since launching his first tour in 1970, Elton has over 4,000 performances in more than 80 countries to his credit.
Elton is the most successful solo male in the history of the American charts and the third most successful artist overall, behind only
Madonna and the Beatles. He has logged 67 Hot 100 entries between 1970 and 2000, including nine No. 1s and 27 top 10s. He achieved seven #1 albums in the three-and-a-half-year period from 1972 to 1975 - a period of concentrated success surpassed only by the Beatles.
Elton was born on March 25, 1947, in Pinner, Middlesex, England, and given the name Reginald Kenneth Dwight. At the age of three he astonished his family by sitting at the piano and playing The Skater's Waltz by ear. At the age of 11 he was awarded a scholarship as a
Junior Exhibitor at the Royal Academy of
Music and he attended the Academy on Saturday mornings for the next four years.
Besides his knighthood, Elton's landmark awards include Best British Male Artist BRIT Award, 1991; Songwriters Hall of Fame (with Bernie Taupin), 1992; Officer of Arts & Letters (France) 1993; induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 1994; Polar
Music Prize, 1995; MusiCares Person of the Year, 2000; Kennedy Center Honor, 2004; Billboard Magazine Legend of Live Award, 2006; Songwriters Hall of Fame Johnny Mercer Award (with Bernie Taupin), 2013; BRITs Icon Award, 2013;
Rockefeller Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, 2013 and the Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative Leadership Award, 2013. In 2002, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Royal Academy of
Music and in 2004 he became a Fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters and Composers.
Elton has won 13 Ivor Novello Awards between 1973 and 2001, been nominated for a Grammy Award 11 times (winning in 1986, 1991, 1994, 1997 and 2000), and received the Grammy Legend Award in 2001. Three of his albums have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, including his 1970 eponymous album.
