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Lady Gaga is godmother to Elton John's son
23 April 2011 | 21:52 | FOCUS News Agency
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n247899
Home / European Union
Los Angeles. British music superstar Elton John has revealed that he and his partner have chosen pop diva Lady Gaga to be their baby boy's godmother, as he spoke of his joy at being a father, AFP reported.
"Yes, yes she is," John told ABC's Babara Walters when she asked him if the outlandish singer was the godmother of his son, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John, in an interview broadcast late Friday.
"When you get to the real person underneath, there's a very simple New York girl who loves her parents. I love her to death and a lot of people said, 'oh, you know, that's crazy,' but they don't know her and we do."
Zachary was born December 25 to a surrogate for John, 64, and his partner 48-year-old Canadian filmmaker David Furnish, and the couple told ABC of their delight in having a son, and their determination not to spoil him.
"I knew I'd feel joy but it was the most relaxing thing that's ever happened to me," John said.
"We change him, we bath him, we feed him and we read him a story every night," said John of the couple's routine. "And we take him to lunch."
But the millionaire singer said he was determined his four-month-old would learn about values, even though he was being brought up in the lap of luxury.
"The worst thing you can do to a child, and I've seen it happen so many times, is the silver spoon," John said. "Being the child of a famous person is very difficult and we're very well aware of the pitfalls of that."
Furnish, who married John in 2005 after 12 years together, agreed. "Our life might be very luxurious, but it's all come from hard work," he said.
"Both Elton and I have sort of earned everything we've done in our careers and furthered our educations through our own drive and our own ambitions and we want Zachary to be exactly the same sort of way."
By turning to a surrogate mother, the couple followed in the footsteps of "Sex in the City" star Sarah Jessica Parker and her actor husband Matthew Broderick who had twin girls by a surrogate mother in 2009.
Latino pop star Ricky Martin also used a surrogate to have twin boys before announcing he was gay.
Elton John has sold more than 250 million records in a career spanning four decades and the singer-songwriter was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
It was confirmed on Saturday that John and Furnish will attend the wedding next Friday of Prince William and Kate Middleton in Westminster Abbey.
John sang the hit "Candle in the Wind" at the funeral of William's mother Princess Diana in the abbey after her death in a car crash in Paris.
Review: Elton John brings classics, style to sold-out show
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110423/LIVING/110423014
Elton John drew a sold-out crowd to the Blue Cross Arena at the Rochester Community War Memorial tonight. / ANNETTE LEIN staff photographer
Mr. Peabody, set the Wayback Machine to 1973! Sir Elton John is opening with “Funeral for a Friend!” And if you don’t understand both that reference to the dog and his boy time-travel segment from
The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, or the organ-drenched rocker from John’s album
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, you probably weren’t at tonight’s sold-out show at the Blue Cross Arena anyway.
The night’s crowd of 11,800, along with a 1999 solo gig, gives John two of the six-biggest crowds ever to see concerts at the venue. It was a night dominated by decades-old rock songs, familiar territory for a band that included John’s original drummer, Nigel Olsson, and his guitarist since the early 1970s, Davey Johnstone (Same hair! Same leather pants!).
And when Johnstone brought out the double-necked guitar for “Tiny Dancer,” you didn’t need a calendar to know where you were. Not with “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “Rocket Man” and a song a lot of us would just as soon forget from that era, — although lots of other folks were singing along — “Philadelphia Freedom.”
What kept it from being a Top 40 robo-show were the surprisingly interesting extended jams infiltrating the hits, particularly “Madman Across the Water” early on, “Levon” and much later a very long but lively piano intro to “Take Me to the Pilot.”
Always sartorially keen, Sir John chose for the evening an ensemble that included a black, long-tailed coat enhanced with a sequined skull, a cross and flowers. Liberace’s Day of the Dead dining jacket, perhaps, and certain to be a hit if he brings it out for next week’s Royal Wedding.
With band members and four backup singers (including Rose Stone of Sly & the Family Stone) picking up the high parts, John stayed well within his 64-year-old voice. He pumped up the crowd with some amusingly energetic pro-wrestling finger pointing and muscle flexing between songs, and several times picked up the lid of his grand piano and slammed it closed with a crash.
The lack of semi trucks parked outside the arena was a testimonial to the show’s straightforward design. Little in the way of flashy lights. Either John is feeling the recession like the rest of us, or he wanted his audience to focus on the songs.
The only ancient songs were from
The Union, John’s recent collaboration with Leon Russell. Russell has been getting onstage with John on this tour for a set of duets midway through the show, but John apologized on Russell’s behalf, noting that “my hero” couldn’t make it tonight. So he did a half-dozen of the songs on his own, showing that some of John’s upbeat piano stompers do indeed owe quite a bit to Russell. Yet the 69-year-old Russell, looking a bit like Methuselah’s mossy walking stick these days, is only five years older than John. Which might suggest that some roads we choose are a lot more potholed than others, if you catch my drift.
TV US : Elton John chante pour son bébé - Regardez
http://www.jeanmarcmorandini.com/article-52950-tv-us-elton-john-chante-pour-son-bebe-regardez.html
Elton John et David Furnish, son compagnon, accordaient vendredi soir leur première interview à la chaîne ABC, depuis l'adoption de leur petit garçon. Ils répondaient aux questions de Barbara Walters dans le cadre de l'émission 20/20.
Le couple s'est notamment confié sur la façon dont il a réussi à entamer des démarches d'adoption dans le plus grand secret. Les deux hommes ont également expliqué comment la paternité avait changé leur quotidien.
Afin de promouvoir le programme, ABC a diffusé plusieurs vidéos, dont l'une où l'on voit Elton John chanter pour son fils, Zachary.
Elton John's son to undergo paternity test
http://expressbuzz.com/entertainment/news/elton-johns-son-to-undergo-paternity-test/268846.html
First Published : 25 Apr 2011 02:28:59 PM IST
Singer Elton John (right) and his partner David Furnish (left) and Barbara Walters holding Zachary(AP Photo/ABC, Donna Svennevik). LONDON: Singer Elton John has confirmed that his son will undergo a paternity test in a bid to determine whether the singer or his partner David Furnish is his biological father.The couple welcomed Zachary last year with the help of a surrogate mother. Elton revealed they both contributed sperm samples to the fertilisation process and the two currently don't know which of them is the child's biological father."Zach will have to know for his medical records. If it's David, I'd be very proud. It wouldn't matter to me - and vice versa," dailystar.co.uk quoted Elton as saying.He also revealed that Zachary's surrogate mother sent them breast milk via courier."The baby's been brought up in Los Angeles for the first four months so we've had the breast milk 'FedEx-ed' from where she (the surrogate mother) is to Los Angeles every day," he said.
Express delivery! Elton John has mother's milk bought to baby Zach by FedEx
By
Simon Cable
Last updated at 1:40 AM on 25th April 2011
Once upon a time he might have had fresh flowers or fine wine shipped to his door from miles away.
Now Sir Elton John’s priorities have changed – if not the extravagance.
Since becoming a father, the singer has had breast milk for his four-month-old son Zachary delivered to his home by courier service FedEx.
Happy families: Elton John with four-month-old Zachary
In an interview broadcast in the United States, the 64-year-old revealed the lengths he has gone to to ensure Zachary is fed on milk expressed by his biological mother, who acted as a surrogate for Sir Elton and his partner David Furnish, 48.
Sir Elton told talk show host Barbara Walters: ‘[Zachary’s biological mother] has been providing him with breast milk.
‘We have the breast milk FedExed from where she is.’
In the UK, only a third of babies are exclusively breastfed when they are one week old, dropping to 7 per cent by the time babies reach Zachary’s age.
Most mothers favour artificial alternatives, such as milk formula. The most recent figures, from 2005, show that 53 per cent of babies are fed exclusively on such substitutes at some point between four and ten weeks of age. Sir Elton and Mr Furnish became parents on Christmas Day.
In charge: The 64-year-old singer looked delighted to be burping his little baby
Pucker up: Elton John kisses the head of baby Zachary
The couple are thought to have been present when Zachary arrived weighing 7lb 15oz at a Beverly Hills hospital and have so far been bringing up their baby in California.
In the interview with Miss Walters, Sir Elton is shown burping Zachary and cuddling him before singing him a lullaby.
He sings: ‘I love my little boy, he’s my little pride and joy. He’s the most gorgeous little bubba in the world.’
The star then kisses Zachary’s head before adding: ‘Yes you are, you are a gorgeous thing.’
Sir Elton, who has been with Mr Furnish for 17 years, recently revealed the inspiration behind their son’s full name, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John. He said: ‘Zachary is one of my favourite names, and David’s. And one of our favourite churches in Venice, where we have a home, [is] called San Zaccaria.
‘It was John the Baptist’s father’s name and John the Baptist was born three days before Jesus Christ.
‘Jackson is a name I’ve always liked and David’s dad is called Jack and it’s an old English name that means son of Jack.
‘And it was just going to be Zachary Jackson and then as he was born on Christmas Day, and [my] song Levon says “he was born a pauper to a pawn on a Christmas Day”, I chucked that in for a bit of rock star influence.’
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1380266/Elton-John-mothers-milk-bought-baby-Zach-FedEx.html#ixzz1KWuQ4xfZ
Crowe pays homage to Elton John, Leon Russell
http://ca.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idCATRE73N2BG20110424
By David Rooney
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - At the end of Cameron Crowe's moving and eloquently simple documentary, "The Union," Elton John sings "You're never too old to hold somebody."
That lyric is entirely appropriate for a film that is one warm, extended embrace from the music legend to his idol, Leon Russell.
This chronicle of the making of John and Russell's 2010 Universal album of the same name is also a valentine from a filmmaker for whom music has always been an indispensable element of his movies. Reinforcing that connection, John began his live performance following the Tribeca Film Festival's opening-night screening with "Tiny Dancer," a song used to stirring effect in Crowe's 2000 feature, "Almost Famous."
The most visible directorial touch here is the split-screen employed to show the two musicians on opposite sides of a studio, or to juxtapose present-day images of them with their 1970s high style. Otherwise, Crowe's work is anything but intrusive. You get the sense he counts himself lucky just to be in the same room while these guys work. That congenial tone might make "The Union" a little reverential for non-fans, but it should find an eager audience of devotees on TV and DVD.
John toured with Russell back in the '70s, but the two had not seen each other in 38 years when they met again in Los Angeles to begin work on the album. John conceived the project as a tribute to a piano man and songwriter who was a major influence on him; his aim was to recapture the sound of Russell's vintage releases.
Produced by T-Bone Burnett, the result was listed by Rolling Stone among the top five albums of last year. It merges the expansive flavors of Russell's music -- combining rock 'n' roll, gospel, soul, blues, country -- with enveloping narratives and soaring sounds that evoke the golden years of John's songwriting collaboration with Bernie Taupin, another contributor to this album.
A 2011 inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Russell had drifted into semi-obscurity before the album was made. At times he shows the watchful timidity of a hermit lured back into society. When John attempts to high-five him soon after their reunion, he says, "I don't know how to do that. That's some kind of sports thing, isn't it?" There's also a dry, self-effacing quality to his humor, and a notable lack of ego.
While his outfits might be less outre, Russell hasn't significantly altered his look in the four decades since he was heading Joe Cocker's band on the "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" tour. But while his curtain of hair, epic beard, spectacles and occasional top hat back then gave him the air of an intimidating hippie wizard, he's now a more benign, white-maned figure, accurately described by John as looking like God.
Both artists purveyed different brands of flamboyance back in their hey-days, illustrated by some fun archival footage. Seeing John in his red hot pants or Donald Duck costume never gets old. Crowe provides a brisk account of the incredible sweep of Russell's influence in a montage of hit songs from the '60s and '70s on which he played as a session musician.
While there's no attempt to create artificial tension in what's basically a love letter, the film acknowledges an interruption in the creative process as Russell underwent emergency brain surgery. His gradual recovery appears to be fueled by the music, peaking when some soulful backup singers enter the studio and start shoop-shooping, which has Russell stroking his beard with pleasure.
The tenderness John shows his collaborator is clearly genuine. Watching him overcome by emotion as Russell, not long out of hospital, sits at the piano and performs the gravelly hymn "In the Hands of Angels" for the first time, John seems less a music giant than a man acknowledging an enormous debt of gratitude.
Famous faces stop by during the writing and recording process: Booker T. Jones plays on one track, Brian Wilson sings harmonies, Stevie Nicks drops in and recalls opening for Russell with Lindsey Buckingham a few years before they formed Fleetwood Mac. But the film is above all a gesture from one musician to another, a heartfelt testament to the rewards of collaboration, and for John, an act of humble fandom.
"The Union" is dedicated to Reginald Dwight and Claude Russell Bridges, the birth names of its two subjects. That choice is fitting for a portrait that looks beyond the fame of either artist to provide intimate access to them as they return to their roots.
Royal wedding guest list features Elton John, Beckhams
Read more:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Royal+wedding+guest+list+features+Elton+John+Beckhams/4667479/story.html#ixzz1KWv6rZ9h
Britain's monarchy released the list of confirmed guests for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on Saturday, with singer Elton John and David and Victoria Beckham saying they will attend.
Photograph by: Ben Stansall, AFP/Getty Images
LONDON - Britain's monarchy released the list of confirmed guests for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on Saturday, with singer Elton John and David and Victoria Beckham saying they will attend.
Sporting stars including Australian Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe and showbiz figures such as Mr. Bean actor Rowan Atkinson will also be at Friday's ceremony, along with veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
St James's Palace released the seating plan for the service in London's historic Westminster Abbey, with Queen Elizabeth II and senior royals in the front row together with Kate's family on the other side of the aisle.
More than 40 members of foreign royal families including Prince Albert of Monaco — who will tie the knot himself on July 1 with South African swimmer Charlene Wittstock — have also confirmed their attendance at the wedding, as well as several heads of state.
John — who sang the hit Candle in the Wind at the funeral of William's mother Princess Diana in the abbey in 1997 after her death in a car crash in Paris — will be accompanied by his partner David Furnish.
Prince William met footballer Beckham, who will be at the service with his fashion designer wife Victoria, as part of England's failed bid to host the 2018 World Cup, St. James's Palace said.
The palace released only a handful of the names of the 1,900 guests at the wedding, which is expected to be watched by a worldwide television audience of around 2 billion people.
Read more:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Royal+wedding+guest+list+features+Elton+John+Beckhams/4667479/story.html#ixzz1KWv9O3ad
Music of Elton John brings 'Billy' to life on stage
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/get_out/article_7f2cc81a-6c5f-11e0-ab7e-001cc4c03286.html
- DETAILS
- Opens at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 26, and runs through May 8. ASU Gammage, 1200 S. Forest Ave., Tempe. $25-$103. (480) 965-3434 or asugammage.com.
Posted: Sunday, April 24, 2011 1:15 pm
If you never saw the 2000 film “Billy Elliot,” maybe it’s just as well — because now you can see the story live on stage, set to the music of pop icon Elton John.
John wrote the score for “Billy Elliot The Musical,” opening Tuesday at ASU Gammage in Tempe, and some critics have called the body of songs John’s best score yet, with The New York Times calling it downright “show-stopping and electric.”
The show itself earned 10 2009 Tony Awards, including best musical.
Set in a small town in the mid-1980s, the story follows young Billy as he stumbles out of the boxing ring and into ballet class, discovering a passion that inspires his family and his community — which is torn apart by a violent miners’ strike.
The show contains some adult language, and parental discretion is recommended for children 8 and older.
• Contact writer: (480) 898-6818 or
azajac@evtrib.com
DETAILS >> Opens at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and runs through May 8. ASU Gammage, 1200 S. Forest Ave., Tempe. $25-$103. (480) 965-3434 or
asugammage.com.
Elton John: Muttermilch für Sohnematz Zachary
Sonntag, 24. April 2011, 10:27
Sir John sagte: "Das Baby ist in den ersten vier Monaten in Los Angeles gewesen, und deshalb bekamen wir die Muttermilch jeden Tag, weil die Mutter in Los Angeles lebt. Sie und ihre Familie werden selbst dann ein Teil unseres Lebens sein, wenn er aufwächst. "
Und auch sonst kümmern si h die beuden herren vorbildlich um den Neuzugang im Hause: „Wir wickeln und baden ihn, wir füttern ihn und lesen ihm jeden Abend eine Geschichte vor. Das Schlimmste, was man einem Kind antun kann, ist, es mit einem Silberlöffel im Mund aufwachsen zu lassen“.
Unterdessen bestätigten die beiden auch, wer die Paten-Tante des Zwergs ist: Lady Gaga. Elton John sagte dazu: "Die Sängerin sei nämlich in Wirklichkeit „ein ganz einfaches Mädchen aus New York, das seine Eltern liebt“.
Und David Furn ish ergänzte: „Zachary wird eines Tages ein gewaltiges musikalisches Vermächtnis erben. Gaga kann ihn durch die Tücken des Musikbusiness führen, weil sie inzwischen alles über dieses Geschäft weiß.“
Zachary wurde am 25. Dezember 2010 in Los Angeles durch eine kalifornische Leihmutter geboren.
Übrigens hat Elton John hat einen Mehrjahresvertrag mit dem Hotel Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas abgeschlossen. Die Diva wird ab September drei Jahre mit seiner Show "The Million Dollar Piano" auftreten. Mit "The Red Piano" gastierte Elton John von 2004 bs 2009 in Las Vegas.
Fotos:
wenn.com
