When Elton John decided to move his Rock in Rio performance up by 65 minutes on Monday (Sept. 7), many assumed it was weather-related. After all, thunderstorms had battered the City of Rock for the previous three days, and a man nearing 80 could hardly be blamed for wanting to avoid a late-night downpour.
But the real reason was different. The British superstar wanted to take the stage early enough to deliver a full concert: 24 songs over two hours and 15 minutes, considerably longer than a typical festival set. Even the rain seemed to cooperate, letting up in time for the audience to hear him sing.
The performance surpassed every previous headliner at this year’s festival in both stage time and number of songs: Foo Fighters played 19, Avenged Sevenfold 14 and Calvin Harris 21. John explained that he decided to come to Brazil even after wrapping his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour in July 2023 because the country had been left off the itinerary.
“I felt a little mean about that,” he said. “I accepted Rock in Rio’s invitation to thank you once again for all the love you’ve shown me throughout my career.”
And the setlist was, in fact, almost an expanded version of the Farewell Yellow Brick Road show: 20 of Monday night’s 24 songs were also part of the 23-song set he used during the final stretch of the tour.
The runs of “Tiny Dancer,” “Sacrifice,” “Honky Cat” and “Rocket Man,” followed later by “Candle in the Wind,” “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “Sad Songs (Say So Much)” and “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” were overwhelming. There are pop stars with fortunes and mansions in the Hollywood Hills who have never written a single song of this caliber, let alone so many of them. John dedicated “Crocodile Rock” to the Brazilian audience, who grinned their way through the song’s “la-la-la” refrain.
