Elton John 2000–present
 In the 2000s, John began frequently collaborating with other artists. In 2000, John and Tim Rice teamed again to create songs for DreamWorks' animated film The Road To El Dorado and was also the narrator. In the musical theatre world, addition to a 1998 adaptation of The Lion King for Broadway, John also composed music for a Disney production of Aida in 1999 with lyricist Tim Rice, for which they received the Tony Award for Best Original Score and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. He also released a live compilation album called Elton John One Night Only - The Greatest Hits from the show he did at Madison Square Garden in New York that same year.
In 2001 he declared that Songs from the West Coast would be his final studio album, and that he would now concentrate on just live performances. In 2004, however, he released a new album, Peachtree Road.
Also in 2001, John accepted an offer to appear as a guest on the BBC topical quiz show Have I Got News For You. However, he changed his mind just hours before recording was due to begin, and so the producers recruited Ray Johnson, a taxi driver from Colchester, Essex, who worked part-time as an Elton John lookalike. He said next to nothing during the programme, while captions praising Johnson and slagging off John were added to the final cut of the programme when it was broadcast 24 hours later. A special based on his career from his start until that year was also done and called The Elton John Story which is shown on the VH-1 Classic channel. However, it has never been released on VHS or DVD.
John continued his successful collaborations with other artists during the 2000s. 'Your Song' was re-recorded several times during the first part of the decade with Alessandro Safina, British Cellist Julian Lloyd Webber etc.
Moreover, in 2002, John duetted with Eminem on the rapper's Stan at the Grammy Awards which appears on Eminem's compilation album Curtain Call: The Hits as its bonus track. He also performed the song Friends for the soundtrack to The Country Bears written by Taupin along with starring as himself working in a garden.
Previously, in 2003, British boyband Blue had released a version of Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word, which included John. It went to number 1 in the UK as well as many other European countries. Elton achieved yet another number 1 single in the UK in 2005, being featured on 2Pac's posthumous song Ghetto Gospel from the rapper's album, Loyal to the Game. The song sampled Indian Sunset from John's 1971 album, Madman Across the Water. Indian Sunset was later released on the single Electricity, which John wrote for the 2005 West End production of Billy Elliot the Musical. The single benefited from some clever marketing. Over 75% of the sales were downloads, thanks to an Elton John competition where fans could send a text message including an answer to the question and then receive a download of the track. Electricity remains one of his biggest solo hits of the 2000s.
However, his biggest hit was Are You Ready For Love. Although it was pretty much ignored when it was first recorded during the late 1970s Thom Bell sessions, it became something of a Balearic fixture and eventually got a re-release on Southern Fried Records in 2004. Are You Ready For Love proceeded to go straight to number 1 in the UK and on Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.
Elton John was one of the performers at the Live 8 concert at Hyde Park in London on 2 July 2005. He performed as third act of the day and had also been promoting the concerts together with Bob Geldof Bono etc. At the concert in London, he played The Bitch is Back, Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting and lastly, T. Rex's Children of the Revolution with The Libertines and Babyshambles' frontman, Pete Doherty.
Returning again to musical theatre, John composed music for a West End Theatre production of Billy Elliot the Musical in 2005 with playwright Lee Hall. John's only theatrical project with Bernie Taupin so far is Lestat: The Musical, based on the Anne Rice vampire novels. However it was slammed by the critics and closed in May 2006 after 39 performances.. As for other movies, in 2002, his 1970s track Tiny Dancer was prominently featured in the film Almost Famous, and then his The Heart of Every Girl was the end title song from 2003's Mona Lisa Smile.
Also in 2005, Elton John recorded a duet with Australian country music artist Catherine Britt, titled Where We Both Say Goodbye. The duet peaked at #38 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. Then he did another one with the late, closeted gay R&B singer, Luther Vandross on Anyone who had a heart from his tribute album, So Amazing: An All-Star Tribute to Luther Vandross.
Elton John's Christmas Party compilation album with two of his own Christmas songs and the rest being various artists he chose to be on there was initially released exclusively to Hear Music outlets at every Starbucks coffee shop on November 10, 2005. It sought to give away two dollars from each and every sale to the charity Elton John AIDS Foundation. The following year, on October 10, 2006, the album was re-released to the general market eleven months after its original and first release. But six songs of the original twenty-one were omitted from the new release. Therefore, it was left with only fifteen. Then another Elton John tribute album came out, this time from various artists at Studio 99 titled The Timeless Classics Of Elton John Performed By Studio 99, was released on CD on February 7, 2006.
On September 19, 2006, Elton John and Bernie Taupin released a sequel to Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, reflecting again on the phenomenal success, the sadnesses, the creativity and the optimism within their 40 year songwriting partnership; The Captain & The Kid features ten new songs, including the first single The Bridge, and for the first time ever, photographs of both John and Taupin are featured on the album front cover.
Among his many honours, Elton John was named a Disney Legend for his numerous outstanding contributions to Disney's films and theatrical works on October 9, 2006, by The Walt Disney Company. It is the company's highest honour. Another measure of fame came back in July 2005 when Madame Tussauds made a statue of Elton John to his measurements; it took more than 1,000 hours to complete.
In May 2006, Pet Shop Boys released their album Fundamental, the limited edition included In Private, a new version of the Dusty Springfield single they had written in 1989. The song, this time, had been recorded as a duet with John and was later released as bonus track on Pet Shop Boys' top 20 hit Minimal. His string of UK #1 duets continued later that year when the Scissor Sisters' released I Don't Feel Like Dancin', which John co-wrote. Recorded in Las Vegas, it featured John on piano and was included on their album Ta-Dah. I Don't Feel Like Dancin' became the fourth best selling single in the UK in 2006 and it stayed in the UK top 40 for 27 weeks. John also co-wrote Intermission from the same album.
On November 12, 2006, in the Observer's Music Monthly When Elton Met Jake John spoke in an interview with openly gay Scissor Sisters band member, Jake Shears as they talked about being gay music stars and other matters. Mixed emotions and numerous misquotes came from John's comment of organized religion.[citation needed] Prior to that, he has also criticized the Roman Catholic Church's position on condoms whom he had blamed for the death of some of his friends who suffered from HIV/AIDS.
In 2007, Elton John was featured in Timbaland's new album Timbaland Presents Shock Value, in the song 2 Man Show. Elton is also rumoured to be featured on a possible new Eminem album, which he has long awaited.
March 2007 saw John celebrating his 60th birthday in more ways than one. He engaged in a joint party with artist Sam Taylor-Wood in the East End and performed at Madison Square Garden for the 60th time (which is a record) to mark his 60th birthday. He performed songs including Your Song, Rocket Man, Candle In the Wind and I'm Still Standing.
To celebrate his record-setting achievement at Madison Square Gardens, a banner marking Most Performances by a Single Artist at the Garden will be raised to the rafters and placed within Madison Square Garden's Music Hall of Fame. Moreover, he released a greatest-hits compilation CD, entitled Rocket Man - Number Ones on March 27, 2007. Rocket Man - Number Ones was released in 17 different versions worldwide, including a CD/DVD combo. Finally, on March 26, Elton's staggering back catalogue - almost 500 songs from 32 albums - became available for legal download. I knew that the entire catalog - not just the hits - needed care and attention to be released in this way, he said in a statement. Now that it's happening, I'm pleased for the fans' sake. Elton John performed at Madison Square Garden in a three-hour long and thirty-three song concert that is also streamed live via *MSN Music that day called Empty Garden. It also inspired a television special called Happy Birthday Elton! to occur which aired on ITV1 and My Network TV. The concert was started with the audience singing Happy Birthday. He opened with a classic song from his second album, Sixty Years On, doubly paying homage to his 60th birthday. The show also featured behind-the-scenes footage from the superstar's private party, where Kate Thornton met and greeted famous guests. The show also saw famous friends of John giving their opinion of him. On October 2, 2007, there was a a DVD release of it titled Elton 60 - Live at Madison Square Garden and a box set with the live CD on October 9, 2007.
On July 1, 2007, John performed at the Concert For Diana. He started the concert with Your Song and finished the concert with three songs; Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting), Tiny Dancer, and Are You Ready For Love. He then commenced a European Tour and played at Live at the Marquee (festival) in Cork on July 9th 2007 to a rapturous reception.
In interviews Elton has listed a number of other projects of his in various stages, including an adaptation of [[Romeo and Juliet]]. He also told Rolling Stone magazine that he plans for his next record to be in the R&B/hip-hop genre. I want to work with Pharrell {Williams}, Timbaland, Snoop {Dogg}, Kanye {West}, Eminem and just see what happens. It may be a disaster, it could be fantastic, but you don't know until you try. John claims to be a big fan of Blackstreet's 1996 hit, No Diggity. He is currently working on the upcoming album and is supposed to be released during October 2007 or later on.
He played on 8 September 2007 in Vevey, a small village situated on Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Of this he said The market square in Vevey is one of the most beautiful and magic places in Europe. Since visiting the area by chance in Summer 2003, I have always wanted to sing there. My friend Shania Twain who lives there, convinced me to set up that gig. (Note: Shania Twain actually lives in the nearby town of Corseaux).
Other memorable concert projects in the decade have so far included Face-to-Face tours with fellow pianist Billy Joel which have been a fan favourite throughout the world since the mid-1990s. In October 2003 Elton announced that he had signed an exclusive agreement to perform 75 shows over three years at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip. The show, entitled The Red Piano, was a multimedia concert featuring massive props and video montages created by David LaChapelle. Effectively, he and Celine Dion share performances at Caesar's Palace throughout the year - while one performs, one rests. The first of these shows took place on 13 February 2004. A two year global tour sandwiched between commitments in Las Vegas, some of the venues of which are new to Elton.
On October 13, 2007, Sir Elton John gave a rousing, energetic concert at the Grand Opening of the Sprint Center in Kansas City, MO to over 18,000 screaming fans. In his usual energetic style, he played and sang for 2 1/2 hours straight, only breaking long enough to take drinks of water. Then, after re-entering the stage for his obligatory encore, he took about 10 minutes signing autographs. He then ended his outstanding concert with Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me and, thanking Kansas City for being a receptive audience and town, he closed with perhaps his greatest ballad ever, Your Song.
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