ELTON JOHN

Elton John Was ‘Shocked’ By DaBaby’s HIV Comments, Saying Misinformation Fuels Stigma

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DaBaby’s comments during his controversial Rolling Loud set in Miami this weekend continue to draw reactions from every corner of the entertainment industry. After Dua Lipa, his collaborator on the hit song “Levitating,” said she was “surprised and horrified” by his words, queer rights icon and living legend Elton John has chimed in to address the harm DaBaby’s statements could cause, whether intentional or not.

John’s official Twitter account, which doubles as the account for his Elton John AIDS Foundation, pointed out how statements like DaBaby’s can “fuel stigma and discrimination,” calling them “the opposite of what our world needs to fight the AIDS epidemic.” You can read the full statement below.

We’ve been shocked to read about the HIV misinformation and homophobic statements made at a recent DaBaby show. This fuels stigma and discrimination and is the opposite of what our world needs to fight the AIDS epidemic.

The facts are:

HIV has affected over 70 million people globally: men, women, children, and the most vulnerable people in our communities.

In America, a gay black man has a 50% lifetime chance of contracting HIV. Stigma and shame around HIV and homosexuality is a huge driver of this vulnerability. We need to break down the myths and judgments and not fuel these.

You can live a long and healthy life with HIV. Treatment is so advanced that with one pill a day, HIV can become undetectable in your body so you can’t pass it onto other people.

Homophobic and HIV mistruths have no place in our society and industry and as musicians, we must spread compassion and love for the most marginalized people in our communities.

A musician’s job is to bring people together.

DaBaby responded to the backlash a few times, noting that it wasn’t his intent to insult anyone, but unfortunately, he seems to have missed the possible unintended harm that resulted from his comments. In addition, online retailer Boohooman ended its partnership with him, while him bringing Tory Lanez onstage could have legal repercussions for the Canadian rapper. All in all, not DaBaby’s best week — although he seems to be taking it all in stride.

Lil Nas X, Demi Lovato, And Others Helped Pay Tribute To Elton John At The 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards

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Elton John has achieved a lot during his lengthy and illustrious career, so he was a natural choice to be given the iHeartRadio Icon Award at the 2021 iHeartRadio Music Awards last night. iHeartRadio went all out with honoring the legend, too, as they pulled out all the stops.

The award was presented to John by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, who ran through some comedic fake facts about John. Lil Nas X then joined in to pay tribute. After the award presentation, there was a tribute performance from Demi Lovato, HER, and Brandi Carlile. HER started by playing “Bennie And The Jets’ at a piano, when then segued into Carlile performing “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me.” Lovato wrapped things up with a rendition of “I’m Still Standing,” and John himself even joined in during the song’s climax.

Ahead of the performances, John also gave an acceptance speech and thanked the aforementioned artists for paying tribute to him. He also spoke about how stunned he was by American radio early in his career, saying, “When I first came to Los Angeles in 1970, radio was so important. I’d never heard radio in America before because I had never been here before, but it was just incredible to me. In England, we had one station. Over here, you’d have music coming out of the radio in all sorts of formats, all sorts of styles… I was a pig in sh*t, basically.”

Watch some clips from the show below.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

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Elton John Blasts The Catholic Church For Being Against Gay Marriage While Simultaneously Raking In Cash From Its Investment In ‘Rocketman’

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Elton John warned that he would “hit someone” if Phoebe Bridgers didn’t win a Grammy, and now it appears that “someone” was the Holy See. The musician and biopic-haver very publicly called out the Catholic Church on Monday in a tweet that included some expertly-crafted screenshots that detailed the relationship the church has with his own life.

Namely, John is mad that the Catholic Church is staunchly against gay marriage but is more than willing to profit off of his story by investing in Rocketman, the 2019 film based on his life.

“How can the Vatican refuse to bless gay marriages because they ‘are sin’, yet happily make a profit from investing millions in ‘Rocketman’ – a film which celebrates my finding happiness from my marriage to David??” John wrote in the tweet, which included the #hypocrisy hashtag.

The screenshots in the tweet show headlines from representative stories on the topic, starting with a decree from Monday that reaffirmed the Church’s stance against gay marriage. That was apparently enough for John to remind the Vatican that its finances are, well, complicated. And as the Daily Beast reported, and John pointed out via screenshot, that includes funding the film Rocketman.

But the most curious item on the report to come out so far is a $4.5 million expenditure recorded in February of this year related to finance for the 2019 films Men in Black: International and Elton John’s rather steamy biopic Rocketman, which portrays the entertainer’s drug problems and is the first studio movie to portray gay sex between men in an authentic way.

While investing in mainstream entertainment is hardly sinful, the great contradiction is that the Catholic Church preaches to the devout that homosexuality is a sin.

You could argue, if you really wanted to stretch yourself here, that the church is also supporting extraterrestrial life. But unlike Men in Black, Rocketman was very much based on real life and a very real gay love story. And the connection John is making here is clear: gay marriage is more than okay for the church as long as it’s part of an investment that makes them a bunch of money to continue saying gay marriage is not morally okay.

The Daily Beast story is from 2019, so this has been public knowledge for a while now, but John is highlighting again today because of the re-affirmation of the stance against gay marriage. He has pretty clearly had it with the Church’s ongoing position on an issue that’s very important to him. John fittingly tagged @VaticanNews in the tweet, so hopefully, the Roman city will get the memo that he’s not happy.