Winners Are Revealed For YouTube, Elton John’s Music Video Contest

Late last year, YouTube, legendary singer-songwriter Elton John, and John’s songwriting partner Bernie Taupin announced a contest called The Cut, which invited aspiring filmmakers to create music videos for three of John’s classic tracks. Now, the winners are in, and the new videos for “Rocket Man,” “Tiny Dancer,” and “Bennie and the Jets” have been posted on John’s YouTube channel.

The terms of the contest specified that submissions for the “Rocket Man” video should be animated, the “Tiny Dancer” selection should be live action, and the “Bennie and the Jets” crop should be based around choreography. Sure enough, the three winners are all shining examples within their respective formats, and John’s famous tracks have received the artful accompaniments they deserve. I’m particularly partial to the “Rocket Man” animation, which comes from Iranian filmmaker Majid Adin:

The quality of the winners should not be surprising given the pedigree of the panel YouTube brought in to weigh the submissions. The Cut’s judges were DreamWorks Animation co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, music video director Melina Matsoukas, and Barry Jenkins, director of the recent Oscar winner Moonlight.

“These iconic hits – released in 1971, 1972 and 1973 – were made before the emergence of music videos, yielding an opportunity to breathe new creativity into some of the most loved music of all time,” reads a YouTube blog post that shares the three winners of The Cut. “The concept was beautifully simple. And the results are amazing.”

John’s official VEVO channel, the home of the new videos, has more than 345,000 YouTube subscribers and has accumulated more than 272 million total views.