Midwest princess Chappell Roan shared the stage with pop music icon Sir Elton John as the two performed at his annual Oscars viewing party on Sunday night.
John hosts an Academy Awards Viewing Party for his AIDS Foundation every year and this year’s included Roan as his special guest. The “Tiny Dancer” singer was pulling double duty on Sunday night, as he was also nominated for best original song at the award show.
Roan performed a few songs, including her own “Hot To Go” and a cover of John’s “Your Song,” before the two musicians did a duet of “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.” Just before the night ended, Roan gave John a pink cowboy hat and expressed her gratitude to the elder statesman of pop.
“You have sacrificed so much for the queer community and you made it so I can be the artist I can be,” Roan said, according to video from the night. “So thank you so much.”
The two then closed out the show with Roan’s hit song “Pink Pony Club,” where John joined in at the choruses and danced on stage with his pink hat.
John shared a clip of their “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” duet to his Instagram and called it “nothing short of magical.”
“For one night, we transformed West Hollywood Park into our own Pink Pony Club — a space filled with love and community, where everyone can be unapologetically themselves,” John wrote.
The event raised more than $8.6 million, according to the Elton John Aids Foundation.
David Furnish, John’s husband and chair of the foundation, called it an unforgettable night and thanked all of the participants and donors in a statement.
“Because of your generosity, we were able to celebrate with purpose, helping communities around the world access life-saving HIV prevention, treatment, and mental health support,” Furnish wrote.
Video of their performances, especially the “Pink Pony Club” duet, circulated across social media platforms overnight. Fans described it as an emotional moment as two artists in the LGBTQ community from different generations joyfully came together for the cause.
“the way he’s watching her with so much pride like yeah dude you helped pave the way for this can’t imagine how emotional he must feel,” one person wrote in a TikTok comment.
“You just know as a queer elder, Elton John is so happy to see how far our community has come since he was her age and to see Chappell dominating music makes his heart so happy,” another person wrote in a post on X.
