Elton John and Roblox team up via 360 Magazine.

Elton John × Roblox

Elton John Presents: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road

Step Into Elton John’s World on Roblox, Inspired by His Life, Legacy & Legendary Self-Expression

The Persistent Immersive Experience Includes Community-Created Digital Fashion and Music Celebration Timed to Artist’s Global Tour and Interactive Challenges
 

Today, Elton John unveils his own world, Elton John Presents: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road, on Roblox, a global online platform connecting millions of people through shared experiences. Created by Elton John and Rocket Entertainment with Roblox creators and support from Universal Music Group (UMG), the world leader in music-based entertainment, the virtual experience is live now, offering fans a new way to enjoy his timeless music, express themselves through his iconic fashion co-created with the community, and experience Elton’s impact on popular culture in a new, creative, and unique way.

This unique experience will let fans follow the yellow brick road through an interactive world inspired by Elton’s life and legacy and discover it through the eyes of the Roblox community, learning what Elton’s unparalleled influence means to them. The experience includes Elton’s iconic digital fashion and photographs of memorable moments, interactive challenges set to his greatest hit songs, daily scavenger hunts, and trivia quizzes. Designed in collaboration with more than 20 Roblox community creators, the digital fashion collection on virtual display is inspired by Elton’s most celebrated outfits and eyewear, including free items made with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Major League Baseball and inspired by the outfit Elton wore at his legendary concert in 1975. Fans can try on complete outfits or mix-and-match individual items to recreate Elton’s look on their avatar and shop the full collection available to visitors globally.

Speaking of Beyond the Yellow Brick Road, Elton says: ‘I’m absolutely thrilled to be launching beyond the Yellow Brick Road on Roblox. I’ve seen the joy that Roblox has brought to my boys, and the possibility it creates by the ability to interact with fans in such an exciting and forward-looking way has been mind-blowing to me. I’ve always been myself and used my image, eyewear, and music to express myself, and Roblox really encourages that self-expression. Now my fans can do the same, and that’s really exciting. At every step of my career, I’ve always wanted to push forward and look to the future, and Beyond the Yellow Brick Road is the next step on that journey as I prepare to step away from live touring after 50 years on the road. It’s genuinely thrilling, and I can’t wait to see the response from my fans and the Roblox community.”

David Furnish, CEO of Rocket Entertainment, says: “Elton is a visionary creative with a life full of major music and fashion moments significant to the culture of then and now and lived his life like an avatar! Beyond the Yellow Brick Road is an extraordinary collection of some of these moments that we have had a lot of fun recreating with the Roblox community since Rocket Entertainment began this project. As Elton says farewell to touring at Dodger Stadium, we’re excited for the opportunities that spaces like Roblox offer to ensure Elton’s music and legacy may continue to bring joy to the world.”

Sir Lucian Grainge, Chairman & CEO of Universal Music Group, says: “In the decades we’ve worked together, my commitment to Elton has been to build the largest global audience for his creative genius, spanning his recorded music, songwriting, fashion, and performances. As Eltonwraps up his monumental final tour, we are extremely excited to help bring Beyond the Yellow Brick Road to life so that new generations of fans, now and for years to come, will continue to be entertained and inspired by his songs and music.”

The Roblox community is also invited to a special performance taking place within the Beyond the Yellow Brick Road experience on Roblox starting on November 17th, with additional performances re-airing hourly through November 20th. Reimagined for limitless creative expression on Roblox, this series of ten-minute virtual performances – made up of Elton’s best-loved songs – will offer fans of all ages anywhere in the world an entirely new way to feel part of his final ever U.S. shows. Forming part of his record-breaking and critically acclaimed Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, the special performances will coincide with Elton’s run of Dodger Stadium shows (November 17th – 20th), which will see Elton make history once again as he returns to the iconic L.A. venue for the first time since his legendary performance in 1975.

Virtual experience visitors are also able to earn and collect yellow bricks, the currency used in ‘Beyond the Yellow Brick Road,’ as they explore interactive challenges, allowing them the chance to gain VIP access to hear a dedicated message from Elton and have their avatar appear on stage with him at his final Dodger Stadium show on November 20th. After the Dodger Stadium concerts,‘Elton John: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road’ will continue to live on – with new experiences, music, fashion, and more – as an immersive timeless capsule of his craft in the metaverse.

‘Elton John Presents: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road’ is the latest new frontier that Elton John is embracing during a dazzling period of creativity and cultural relevance. Having topped the U.K. single charts last summer with ‘Cold Heart (PNAU Remix)’ with Dua Lipa, his latest smash hit single ‘Hold Me Closer’ has seen Elton stepping into the limelight with Britney Spears for her first studio recording since 2016. With a chart-topping memoir ‘Me’ and acclaimed musical fantasy ‘Rocketman’ in recent years, and the ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ tour continuing to be lauded by fans and critics alike, his collaboration on Roblox continues to reinforce Elton’s ongoing relevance. As fans prepare to bid farewell to Elton John as a touring artist, ‘With Elton John Presents: Beyond The Yellow Brick Road’ they can continue to experience all aspects of Elton’s world in the forward-thinking and thoroughly modern manner we’ve come to expect from one of the greatest pop culture icons of the 20th and 21st century.

Join Elton Beyond the Yellow Brick Road on Roblox at roblox.com/eltonjohn.

ABOUT ELTON JOHN: 

Elton’s career achievements to date are unsurpassed in their breadth and longevity. Elton is one of the top-selling solo artists of all time. In the UK and US charts alone he has 1 diamond, 32 platinum or multi-platinum, and 21 gold albums as well as over 70 Top 40 hits. He has sold more than 300 million records worldwide. 

He holds the record for the biggest-selling single of all time, “Candle in the Wind 1997”, which sold over 33 million copies. Released in 2017 ‘Diamonds’ the Ultimate Greatest Hits album, became Elton’s 40th UK Top 40 album and has spent over 200 consecutive weeks in the top 75 of the UK album charts, over 110 of these in the top 20, and in August 2022 surpassed the threshold for 1 million combined chart unites in the UK. This release celebrated 50 years of his songwriting partnership with Bernie Taupin. August 2018 saw Elton named as the most successful male solo artist in Billboard Hot 100 chart history. At present, he has logged 70 Billboard Hot 100 entries, including nine No. 1s and 28 Top 10s. ‘The Lockdown Sessions’, an album of collaborations recorded during the COVID-19 Pandemic, was released in October 2021 and went straight to number 1 in the UK album Charts, becoming Elton’s 8th UK number 1 album in the process. It’s lead single “Cold Heart (PNAU Remix) with Dua Lipa” became a bona fide global hit, reaching number 1 in the UK and Australian singles charts. Its success meant that Elton became the first ever solo artist to score a UK Top 10 hit single in 6 consecutive decades. His most recent release, “Hold Me Closer,” featuring Britney Spears debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, providing Elton with his tenth Top 10 hit. The song also climbed to #1 in Australia and Canada, #3 in the UK, and most notable, #1 on iTunes in over 40 countries upon release. In America, Elton John holds the record for longest span between Billboard top 40 hits at 50 years.   

Elton announced the ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ tour at New York’s Gotham Hall in January 2018. Encompassing 5 continents, and over 350 dates, this 5-year-long tour started in September 2018 and marks his retirement from touring after more than 50 years on the road. In 2019 it was named Billboard’s Top Rock Tour and Pollstar’s Major Tour Of The Year. To date, Elton has delivered more than 4,000 performances in more than 80 countries since launching his first tour in 1970. 2019 also saw the release of ‘Rocketman’ and global bestselling autobiography, ‘ME’. An epic fantasy musical motion picture of Elton’s life, ‘Rocketman’ has been a commercial and critical hit, taking close to $200m at the box office. It has won an Oscar, two Golden Globe Awards and a Critics’ Choice Award and garnered BAFTA nominations. Its soundtrack was also nominated for a GRAMMY Award. 

Among the many awards and honors bestowed upon him are six GRAMMYs, including a GRAMMY Legend award, a Tony and two Oscars, a Best British Male Artist BRIT Award, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Kennedy Center Honor, Legend of Live Award, 13 Ivor Novello Awards between 1973 and 2001 and a knighthood from HM Queen Elizabeth II for “services to music and charitable services”. Most recently, Elton was awarded the 2021 iHeartRadio “Golden Icon” Award in recognition of his incredible influence on music and pop culture. In February 2022, he topped the inaugural Pollstar Artist Power Index, a weekly rank of the world’s most popular artists based on streaming, touring, airplay, and social media metrics.  

In 1992, Elton established the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which today is one of the leading non-profit HIV/AIDS organizations and has raised over $515 million to date in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. In June 2019 President Emmanuel Macron presented Elton the Légion d’honneur, France’s highest award, for his lifetime contribution to the arts and the fight against HIV/AIDS. Elton was awarded the Companion of Honor in the 2021 New Year Honors list. The highest acknowledgement in the list, Elton became one of only 64 people to hold the honor. September 2019 saw The Royal Mail issue a set of 12 stamps as a tribute to Elton being one of the most popular and enduring music artists of all time. Elton was only the second individual music artist to be featured in a dedicated stamp issue. In July 2020 the Royal Mint released an Elton John commemorative coin, the second in their music legends series to celebrate ‘one of the most successful and enduring artists of all time’. Always a tireless champion of new artists, Elton has been a leading industry voice in lobbying the government for young artists visa-free touring rights in Europe post Brexit.