Elton John
Singer-songwriter and pianist
Sir Elton John, born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947 in Pinner, Middlesex, is one of the best-selling music artists in history, with hits spanning six decades from 'Your Song' (1970) and 'Rocket Man' (1972) to 'I'm Still Standing' and 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart'. His long songwriting partnership with lyricist Bernie Taupin produced dozens of chart-topping records, and his flamboyant stage presence made him one of pop music's most enduring performers.
Elton John's Welsh connection is a claimed one rather than a settled fact. During a concert in Swansea in front of a large audience, he reportedly told the crowd that his grandfather was Welsh and had served in the Welsh Guards, an anecdote that has circulated on this site and elsewhere ever since. Genealogical research into his mother's side of the family does show a Welsh thread further back, with a great-great-grandmother said to have been born in Towyn, Merionethshire, but no independent record has been found confirming a Welsh-born grandfather specifically. We record the claim here as he made it, while flagging that it has not been independently verified.
Whatever the precise genealogy, Elton John has performed in Wales many times over his career, including an early concert in Narberth, Pembrokeshire, in 1970 and large-scale shows in Swansea and Cardiff in later decades, giving Welsh audiences a long-standing, if informal, claim on him.