... after singer makes 50 pages of demands and pledges to show solidarity with persecuted gay community.

Elton is due to perform in Russia on December 6 & 7, 2013 – but the concerts could be called off by local officials if they believe his performances will break their ‘gay propaganda’ laws. Despite Elton being one of the most famous performers in the world, having sold more than 250 million records worldwide, if officials suspect he’s going to use his appearances to rail against Russia’s new rulings, they will pull the plug, according to The Times.

Quoting Russian paper Your Day, it reports that preparations for the concerts – in Moscow's Crocus City Hall and Kazan - have already been a considerable expense. The rider – a list of requests – apparently runs to 50 pages and includes his hotel dressing room in Moscow being turned into a ‘paradise garden’ populated by ‘decorative birds’ and trees.

Elton, who reminisced in an interview in September 2013 about having sex on a Moscow rooftop with a translator during his 1979 Soviet Union tour, said he wanted to perform in Russia to support the gay community.

"As a gay man, I can't leave those people on their own without going over there and supporting them. I don't know what's going to happen, but I've got to go," he said in the interview. One of the world's most prominent gay celebrities, he lives with his partner David Furnish, with whom he is in a civil union, and they are bringing up two children together. He has campaigned for gay rights in Britain and in Ukraine where he was denied the right in 2009 to adopt a child because of his age and marital status.

This summer, anti-gay campaigners warned Elton not to wear 'flamboyant' clothes at his planned concert in Krasnodar in July 2013. The concert was later cancelled when the singer fell ill. 'Promoting homosexuality' is an offence in several Russian regions, including Krasnodar, St Petersburg, and Novosibirsk.

In September 2013 a Russian parents' committee asked President Vladimir Putin to cancel the planned concerts, saying he intended to violate a ban on 'homosexual propaganda'. In an open letter to Putin, the local parents' group in central Ural region was reported by media as saying: 'The singer intends to come out in support of local sodomites and break the current Russian law, directed at protecting children.'

Related News