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Read about Elton John. Complete the gaps a-d with the sentences 1-5 below. There is one extra sentence.

1. It was Lennon's last live performance.
2. They had their first hit, Your Song, in 1970.
3. He won the battle.
4. That year, he won his first Grammy award.
5. It was the start of a long-lasting partnership

Elton John's real name is Reginald Dwight. He was born in 1947 and started playing the piano when he was four. As a teenager, he played the piano in several groups and then, in 1966, he met Bernie Taupin and started writing music for Bernie's lyrics. a)___________

b)_____________between 1972 and 1976, elton John and Bernie's hit-making machine was virtually unstoppable. Rocket man began a four-year run of sixteen single hits and Honky chateau was the first of seven consecutive number one albums.

Throughout the mid-seventies, elton's concerts were enormously popular.In 1974, he persuaded john Lennon to join him on stage in New York. c)________________

However, success, fame and endless touring put Elton under a lot of stress. by the late 1980s, he was fighting against cocaine addiction. d) __________ In 1992, he established the Elton John AIDS Foundation and decided to donate money from the sales of his singles to AIDS research.

In 1994, Elton wrote some songs with Tim Rice for the Disney film, The Lion King. One of their songs, Can You Feel the Love Tonight?, won an Oscar for best original song.

Candle in the wind, is a John/Taupin composition from 1973 about Marilyn Monroe. In 1997, Elton sang a special version of it at Princess Diana's funeral service. 

Listen to the song and read the lyrics

Candle in the wind

A)  Goodbye, Norma jean,

Though I never  1 __________ you at all,out

you have the grace to hold yourself

While those around you crawled.

They 2_____________ out of the woodwork.

And they 3_____________into your brain,

They set you on the treadmill

And they 4 _____________ change your name.

B)  And it seems to 5 be lived your life

Like a candle in the wind.

Never knowing who to 6 sing to

When the 7 pain set in

And I would have liked to have known you

but I was just a kid

Your candle 8 turned out long before

Your legend ever did

C)  9 ____________ was togh,

The toughest role you ever played.

Hollywood created a 10 _______________

And the pain was the price you paid.

Even when you died

The 11 _______________still hounded you,

All the 12 ________________had to say

Was that Marilyn was found in the nude.

D)  From the young man in the 22nd row

More than just our Marilyn Monroe

who sees you as something more than sexual

Goodbye Norma Jean 

Listen to the song again and do the task for each verse

Verse A: complete the gaps with verbs.

Verse B: the words in red are wrong.

Verse C: complete the gaps with nouns.

Verse D: put the lines in the correct order.

Answer these questions about the song

1. Why dindn't the singer ever meet Norma Jean (Marilyn Monroe)?
2. How does the singer feel about her?
3. Why does he describe Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana as candles in the wind?

Now, think about celebrities in our country who had problems with fame and tell the class.