Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
"God bless you, let's have some music," said Elton John.
With that, the White House South Lawn was transformed into a musical lovefest Friday night as John played a farewell gig to honor everyday "heroes" like teachers, nurses and AIDS activists. But as it turns out, the event was also to honor the 75-year-old British songwriter -- President Joe Biden surprised him with the National Humanities Medal for being a "tidal wave" who helped people rise up for justice.
John seemed almost overcome by the accolades, telling the audience of 2,000 people: "I don't know what to say. ... I don't know how to take a compliment very well but it's wonderful to be here amongst so many people who have helped my AIDS foundation and my heroes, that ones that work day to day on the front line."
He said he'd played some beautiful venues before, but the stage in front of the White House, beneath a massive open-air tent on a perfect autumn night, was "probably the icing on the cake."
He kicked off the show with "Your Song," his first big international hit.
The intimate guest list included teachers, nurses, frontline workers and LGBTQ advocates, plus former first lady Laura Bush, civil rights advocate Ruby Bridges, education activist Malala Yousafzai and Jeanne White-Ginder, an AIDS activist and mother of Ryan White, who died from AIDS-related complications in 1990.
Biden and first lady Jill Biden talked about the British singer's activism, the power of his music and his all-around goodness. The event was dreamed up and paid for by A+E and the History Channel.
"Seamus Heaney once wrote, and I quote, 'Once in a lifetime, the longed-for tidal wave of justice can rise up, and hope and history rhyme," Biden said. "Throughout his incredible career, Sir Elton John has been that tidal wave, a tidal wave to help people rise up and make hope and history rhyme."
The night, in fact, was called "A Night When Hope and History Rhyme," a reference to the poem Biden quoted by Ireland's Heaney.
Sir Elton -- he was knighted in 1998 by Queen Elizabeth II -- has sold over 300 million records worldwide, played over 4,000 shows in 80 countries and recorded one of the best-selling singles of all time, his 1997 reworking of "Candle In The Wind" to eulogize Princess Diana, which sold 33 million copies.
John punctuated the hits Friday with emotional tidbits of his history, including a shoutout to Laura Bush and former president George W. Bush for his administration's emergency plan for AIDS relief, and a story of how a dying Ryan White and his mother pushed him into advocacy in the first place, and helped him get sober.
"I wouldn't be here talking tonight," he said. "They saved my life."
He then dedicated "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" to Ryan.
Despite the presence of plenty of lawmakers, the political speak was kept to a minimum, except for when John said, "I just wish America would be more bipartisan on everything."
It was his first White House gig since he performed with Stevie Wonder at a state dinner in 1998 honoring British Prime Minister Tony Blair. John is on a farewell tour that began in July after performing for more than 50 years.
The show came together after A+E Networks and the History Channel asked the White House and John if they'd be up for a collaboration honoring "everyday history-makers" as well as John himself.
It's not clear whether the show will be broadcast. John has worked with A+E in the past on his global HIV/AIDS charity, the Elton John Foundation, which has raised more than US$525 million to combat the virus around the world.
John is sticking around to play a sold-out show at Nationals Park Saturday.
The president and first lady are big fans. Biden wrote in a 2017 memoir about singing "Crocodile Rock" to his two young boys as he drove them to school, and again later to son Beau before he died of cancer at age 46.
"I started singing the lyrics to Beau, quietly, so just the two of us could hear it," Biden wrote. "Beau didn't open his eyes, but I could see through my own tears that he was smiling."
John played the song Friday, saying someone told him Biden used to sing it to his little boys. "I can't imagine him singin' it," John quipped before suggesting the president come up on stage. He did not. But the whole crowd did do the "La-La-Las" from their seats.
Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, was also a fan of John. He tried to get John to perform at his 2017 inauguration but John declined, saying he didn't think it was appropriate for a Brit to play at the swearing-in of an American president.
The White House insisted Friday's show wasn't an effort to troll Trump, who has praised John in his books and has often featured John's music -- including "Rocket Man" and "Tiny Dancer" -- in his pre-rally playlists over the years. Trump nicknamed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un "rocket man" for his record of test-firing missiles.
John played both Friday, to thunderous applause.
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
The CFL suspended Toronto Argonauts quarterback Chad Kelly for at least nine regular-season games Tuesday following its investigation into a lawsuit filed by a former strength-and-conditioning coach against both the player and club.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.