Sometimes, two enormous personalities are simply too big to coexist. That’s the cliché. The egos can’t fit through the same door, the spotlight is too narrow, and the result is a bloated, indulgent disaster where nobody looks good.
And then there’s this.
Aretha Franklin and Elton John — two performers so powerful, so legendarily committed to their own musical visions, so singular in their presence — shouldn’t have worked together on paper. It had every right to fall apart under the weight of its own diva energy.
But it didn’t.
Because instead of clashing, they complimented. Instead of overwhelming, they uplifted. And in 1993, on the Aretha Franklin: Duets television special — an AIDS research benefit concert built entirely around the Queen of Soul herself — Elton John joined her on stage for a show-closing rendition of ‘Border Song’ that was utterly magical.
This wasn’t a stunt. It wasn’t some empty industry exercise in box-ticking. It was two titans, with deep artistic respect for one another, stepping up and delivering a genuine moment.
And the moment was layered.
Aretha had already covered ‘Border Song’ in 1970 — months after its initial release on Elton’s breakthrough self-titled album. Her version charted higher than his, proof that she had not only recognised the strength of the material but injected it with her own spiritual fire. She’d taken something good and made it essential. So when she invited Elton to perform it with her decades later, it wasn’t just a tribute. It was a full-circle celebration of a shared creative connection.
Elton, for his part, was game. Despite calling his own lyrics for the track “very mundane” compared to Bernie Taupin’s (he wrote the stirring final verse himself), he embraced the opportunity to sing with a woman he had long idolised. And he did more than survive the moment — he held his own.
The duet wasn’t just an aesthetic triumph. It was symbolic. It transcended genre, ego, and expectation...Because of course it did.
