In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him 49th on its list of 100 influential musicians of the rock and roll era. John has received five Grammy Awards, five Brit Awards including for Outstanding Contribution to Music two Academy Awards, two Golden Globes, a Tony Award, a Disney Legends Award, and the Kennedy Center Honor. John, who announced he was bisexual in 1976 and has been openly gay since 1988, entered into a civil partnership with David Furnish in 2005 they married after same-sex marriage became legal in England and Wales in 2014. John has performed at a number of royal events, such as the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales at Westminster Abbey in 1997, the Party at the Palace in 2002 and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert outside Buckingham Palace in 2012. from 1976 to 1987 and again from 1997 to 2002, and is an honorary life president of the club. Since its inception, the foundation has raised over £300 million. He established the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992, and a year later he began hosting his annual Foundation Academy Awards Party, which has since become one of the biggest high-profile Oscar parties in the Hollywood film industry. Outside of music, John is an HIV/AIDS charity fundraiser, and has been involved in the fight against AIDS since the late 1980s. While not appearing in his own biopic, John has made cameos in other films and television shows. His life and music career was dramatised in the 2019 biopic Rocketman. In 2018, John began his ongoing farewell tour Farewell Yellow Brick Road. John has also had success in musical films and theatre, composing music for The Lion King and its stage adaptation, The Road to El Dorado, Aida and Billy Elliot the Musical. In recent years, he has collaborated with several younger artists like Ed Sheeran and Dua Lipa. John began collaborating with other musicians in the 1970s and early 1980s, including John Lennon, Kiki Dee and George Michael. John continued his success in the 1980s, having several hit singles including " I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues", " I'm Still Standing", " Sad Songs (Say So Much)", " Nikita" and " Sacrifice", and has continued to record new music since then. John's most commercially successful period was the 1970s, during which he released several hit albums including Madman Across the Water (1971), Honky Château (1972), Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player (1973), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973) and Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975). Since 1970, he has toured with the Elton John Band as the pianist and lead singer. In 1970, his first hit single, " Your Song", from his second album, Elton John, became his first top ten in both the UK and the US. In 1969, John's debut album, Empty Sky, was released. For two years, they wrote songs for other artists, and John worked as a session musician for artists. He met his longtime musical partner Taupin in 1967, after they both answered an advert for songwriters. Raised in the Pinner area of Greater London, John learned to play piano at an early age, and by 1962 had formed Bluesology, a blues band with whom he played until 1967. Collaborating with lyricist Bernie Taupin since 1967 on more than 30 albums, John has sold over 300 million records, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Sir Elton Hercules John CH CBE (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight 25 March 1947) is an English singer, pianist and composer, with a career spanning six decades.