[ad_1]
Elton John and Bernie Taupin promote the film rocket man at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019.
Loïc Venance/AFP via Getty Images
hide title
toggle title
Loïc Venance/AFP via Getty Images
Elton John and Bernie Taupin promote the film rocket man at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019.
Loïc Venance/AFP via Getty Images
The famous songwriting duo Elton John and Bernie Taupin will share this year’s edition. Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. The award, one of the most prestigious music awards in the U.S., was established in 2007 by the Library of Congress in honor of another great songwriting team, George and Ira Gershwin, whose papers are housed in the Library.
“They are the epitome of what George and Ira Gershwin represent: legendary songwriting teams who have truly resonated with generations of music lovers,” Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden told NPR.
This is the third time the Gershwin has been awarded to a pair of artists since the award was created in 2007. Gloria and Emilio Estefan were jointly honored. in 2019and Burt Bacharach and Hal David he won the award in 2012. Other previous winners, almost all of them A-list celebrities, included Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Tony Bennett and Willie Nelson. Last year’s Gershwin winner was Joni Mitchell, the third woman to be recognized. AND Mr Paul McCartney He was the first British musician to be honored, in 2010.
In a statement from the Library of Congress, Bernie Taupin said: “To be in a house alongside the great American composers, even to be on the same avenue, is humbling, and one I am absolutely delighted to accept.”
“I have been writing songs with Bernie for 56 years, and we never thought that one day this could be granted to us,” added Elton John, in the same statement. “It is an incredible honor for two Britons to be recognized like this.”
Youtube
John and Taupin met in 1967, through a newspaper advertisement seeking composers. Since then, his albums have sold hundreds of millions of copies. Their hits include “Tiny Dancer,” Rocket Man, “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” and “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” which spent two months atop the Billboard Top 100.
“Their process seems simple: Taupin writes lyrics and sends them to John, who gets to work at the piano and creates a song,” the Library of Congress wrote in its announcement.
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden says her favorite song by the duo is “Bennie and the Jets,” which came out in 1973.
“It was a number one hit on African-American radio stations,” he said. “And I remember being a young person who didn’t even know who the musicians were. But we loved that song and played it over and over again. That really personally emphasizes how this music transcends so many things.”
The two musicians were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992. Earlier this year, Elton John became EGOT, one of only three pop stars to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony. (Maybe now that he has a Gershwin, we can call him EGGOT.)
A televised tribute concert for the couple is scheduled to air nationally on PBS stations on April 8.th from Washington, D.C.