Sir Elton John received the National Humanities Medal from President Joe Biden Friday night during a concert on the White House South Lawn.
White House military aide Maj. Bill Yang announced the U.K.-born singer was receiving the medal “for moving our souls with his powerful voice and one of the defining song books of all time. An enduring icon and advocate with absolute courage, who found purpose to challenge convention, shatter stigma and advance the simple truth — that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.”
As the medal was announced, John stood in front of the 2,000-person crowd clearly shocked, with his mouth open in a gasp. John eventually became emotional, wiping away tears and grabbing first lady Jill Biden’s hand for support.
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“I’m never flabbergasted, but I’m flabbergasted,” John said.
The concert, titled “A Night When Hope and History Rhyme,” featured many references to John’s contribution to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Biden praised the singer for his “fight against HIV/AIDS.”
John also thanked former first lady Laura Bush, who was in the audience at the time, for her husband former President George W. Bush’s contribution in the fight via his Presidential Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief bill during his presidency. John said the topic is one of the truly bipartisan issues and expressed his wish that “America could be more bipartisan on everything.”
“It was an honour to perform [at the White House] and be presented by President [Biden] with the National Humanities Medal for my contribution to music and the work through [the Elton John AIDS Foundation] to end AIDS!” John tweeted following the ceremony. “We’ve reached over 100m people with HIV and we couldn’t have done it without our supporters.”
The audience included those the White House called “everyday history makers,” including civil rights advocate Ruby Bridges, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
“On behalf of the American people, thank you — and I sincerely mean this — for moving the soul of our nation,” Biden told John after listening to a series of his songs.
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John is in the middle of his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour, the singer’s final international tour.
