John has appeared in commercials for Diet Coke, the Royal Mail, Snickers, John Lewis & Partners department store among others. First endorsing Diet Coke in 1990, authors Roger Blackwell and Tina Stephan wrote “the relationship of Elton John and Diet Coke is one of the classic success stories in the role of sponsorship in brand building.” His 2018 John Lewis & Partners Christmas advert in the UK, titled, "The Boy & The Piano", sees him reminisce about his life and career in reverse, eventually culminating with Christmas Day in the 1950s when he received a piano for Christmas from his mother.
In 2000, John admitted to spending £30 million in just under two years—an average of £1.5 million a month. Between January 1996 and September 1997, he spent more than £9.6m on property and £293,000 on flowers. In June 2001, John sold 20 of his cars at Christie's, saying he never had the chance to drive them because he was out of the country so often. The sale, which included a 1993 Jaguar XJ220, the most expensive at £234,750, and several Ferraris, Rolls-Royces, and Bentleys, raised nearly £2 million. In 2003, John sold the contents of his Holland Park home—expected to fetch £800,000 at Sotheby's—to modernise the decoration and to display some of his contemporary art collection. Every year since 2004, John has opened a shop called "Elton's Closet", in which he sells his secondhand clothes.
More InfoOn 4 June 2012, John performed at the Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace, including "Your Song", "Crocodile Rock" and "I'm Still Standing". On 30 June, he performed in Kiev, Ukraine, at a joint concert with Queen + Adam Lambert for the Elena Pinchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation. An album containing remixes of songs that he recorded in the 1970s, Good Morning to the Night, was released in July 2012. The remixes were conducted by Australian group Pnau, and the album reached number one in the UK. At the 2012 Pride of Britain Awards on 30 October, along with Michael Caine, Richard Branson, Simon Cowell and Stephen Fry, John recited Rudyard Kipling's poem "If—" in tribute to the 2012 British Olympic and Paralympics athletes.
More InfoIn 1993, John began a relationship with David Furnish, a former advertising executive and now filmmaker originally from Toronto. On 21 December 2005 (the day the Civil Partnership Act came into force), John and Furnish were among the first couples to form a civil partnership in the United Kingdom, which was held at the Windsor Guildhall. After gay marriage became legal in the United Kingdom in March 2014, John and Furnish married in Windsor, Berkshire, on 21 December 2014, the ninth anniversary of their civil partnership.
More InfoThe Walt Disney Company named John a Disney Legend for his contributions to Disney's films and theatrical works on 9 October 2006. Also in 2006, he told Rolling Stone that he planned for his next record to be in R&B and hip hop. "I want to work with Pharrell Williams, Timbaland, Snoop [Dogg], Kanye [West], Eminem and just see what happens", he said. West sampled John's “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” on his 2007 song “Good Morning” and in 2010 invited him to his Hawaii studio to play piano and sing on “All of the Lights.”
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