Sir Elton John’s 50-Year Career Honored With Gravity-Defying Keyboard Handstand Figure at Madame Tussauds London

Sir Elton John has been honored in innumerable ways during the span of his half-century career. But later this year Madame Tussauds London will pay tribute to the Rocket Man with a one-of-a-kind, gravity-defying figure that pays homage to the pop icon’s wild and wooly 1970s heyday.

According to a press release, the latest rendering of John will honor the decade of his rise to superstardom via a model that has the singer doing one of his patented keyboard handstands, with his legs in the air above his head and his hands firmly planted on the black and whites.

“We’ve been creating figures of Sir Elton John since the beginning of his legendary career, and he has always inspired us to go above and beyond in our creations,” said Madame Tussauds London general manager Steve Blackburn of the singer who has worked with the museum since 1976, when he was the model for its first-ever talking, smiling piece. “Back in the 1970s, his first figure was our first talking figure, and in 2024 we’re determined to go big again. The figure’s iconic, gravity-defying pose will capture the essence of Elton’s legendary early performances in a way that only Madame Tussauds London can. This will be our most structurally complex figure to date in our centuries-old history and it is going to be a real showstopper when we unveil it later this year.”  

Madame Tussauds released behind-the-scenes images from the creation of the figure on Wednesday (Oct. 16), which it called one of the “most complex structural designs integrated into a figure to date.” The first-stage clay sculpt finds John wearing a white toile jumpsuit as well as a pair of the singer’s signature oversized eyeglasses as he hovers in the air, mouth agape; the final costuming will arrive with the finished figure.

The new John creation will launch at Madame Tussauds London’s “Impossible Festival” music zone later this year, taking its place alongside superstar recreations of Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande, Amy Winehouse, David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, Queen’s Freddie Mercury and more.

The upcoming John documentary, Elton John: Never Too Late, will debut on Disney+ on Dec. 13.

Check out an image of the new John figure below.