Remembering Elton John and RuPaul’s iconic Brit Awards performance from 1994
RuPaul (R) duetted with Elton John to belt out “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” and we need it injected into our veins. (Mick Hutson/Redferns)
Name a more truly (and literally) award-wining combination than British singer Elton John and American queen of drag RuPaul.
Swapping Kiki Dee for Mama Ru, the duo delivered an iconic rendition of “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” for a stint on the Brit Awards in 1994.
With the Brit Awards 2020 taking place tonight, there’s no better day to revisit this epic piece of history.
RuPaul duetted with Elton John at the Brit Awards 1994 and it was a great day to have eyes and ears.
On Valentine’s Day that year, the pair co-hosted the prestigious awards ceremony and launched it with their version of the duet.
Ru and Elton did so to mark the release of the song as the second single from Elton’s Duets album.
It saw Elton, decked in all-black and a red World AIDS Day ribbon, arrive to the Brits podium to welcome “the outrageous, the glamorous, Miss RuPaul!”
Ru then descends from a spiral staircase in a neon green dress to raucous applause from attendees, none of whom are worthy of her presence.
They then unleash into a racy duet and it’s honestly of religious importance that this even happened. We can only assume the seemingly non-existent back-up singers are angels themselves.
In the background, a television screen showed clips from the music video for the freshly dropped single.
The music video sees Elton and Ru portray a colourful array of famous couples: Antony and Cleopatra, Sonny and Cher, Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson from Grease and Marie Antoinette and Louis XIV, to name a few.
They even stoically reenacted Grant Wood’s American Gothic painting before bursting into some serious Dad disco dancing.
Elton has sang “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” with everyone from the Spice Girls to Miss Piggy, but his version with Ru is undoubtedly the dictionary definition of fabulous.
