Friday, February 7th 2025: Elton John and Brandi Carlile unveil the music video for their brand new single “Who Believes In Angels?.” Directed by visionary photographer and director David LaChapelle, the video follows the announcement of Elton and Brandi’s collaborative studio album, “Who Believes In Angels?”, set for release on April 4th via Interscope Records.
David LaChapelle and Elton are regular collaborators, having first met when David photographed Elton for Interview Magazine in 1998. They’ve worked together many times since then, with David directing the music videos for Elton’s tracks “This Train Don’t Stop There Anymore” with Justin Timberlake, and “Original Sin” with Elizabeth Taylor and Mandy Moore,.
David also shot the poster for Elton’s “Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour”, and directed his Red Piano residency in Las Vegas. David’s celebrated 1999 “Egg On His Face” photo of Elton is one of the crown jewels in Elton and David Furnish’s photography collection, which was recently on show at London’s V&A Museum for their “Fragile Beauty” exhibition.
The new video is a kaleidoscopic tribute to the rock & roll angels who continue to inspire successive generations. It finds Elton and Brandi performing on a giant pinball machine, playing a winged piano and guitar respectively, while Tina Turner and Little Richard shimmy amongst pink clouds and neon lights.
Speaking about the music video, David LaChapelle says: “It’s been a wonderful continuation of this journey with Elton over the last 20+ years – projects, videos, stage productions, photo shoots… I love these creative challenges we’ve explored and working on this duet with Brandi was really good fun and hard work, but a joyful experience on set. We created a gigantic pinball machine and made a magical world that reminds us of where we’ve been as kids – that dreams do come true – and creating together with your heroes can be a sublime experience.”
Fans can pre-order “Who Believes In Angels?” to gain exclusive access for the chance to buy tickets to “An Evening With Elton John & Brandi Carlile” at The London Palladium on Wednesday, March 26th, 2025. This one night only event will see Elton and Brandi grace the stage of one of London’s most iconic venues for a unique evening of performance and storytelling.
The concept for “Who Believes In Angels?” was devised by close friends and regular collaborators Elton John, 11 time Grammy-winning US superstar Brandi Carlile and multiple Grammy-winning producer and songwriter Andrew Watt. They set out to create a genuinely collaborative studio album between Elton and Brandi.
The album would mix Elton-led songs and Brandi-led songs, with long term collaborator Bernie Taupin and Brandi both contributing lyrics, and producer and co-writer Andrew Watt acting as the producer, mediator and creative conduit.
Entering Los Angeles’ Sunset Sound Studios in October 2023 with a completely blank slate, they pushed each other out of their comfort zones to write and record an album completely from scratch in just 20 days – backed by a world class band of musicians comprising of Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Pino Palladino (Nine Inch Nails, Gary Numan and David Gilmour) and Josh Klinghoffer (Pearl Jam, Beck).
