Elton John’s “Sacrifice” video has passed 1 billion views on YouTube. It is his first video to reach that milestone, Billboard reported Wednesday, Nov. 4. The official upload also displays more than a billion views.
The 1989 clip pairs Canadian model Yasmeen Ghauri with singer Chris Isaak. Alek Keshishian directed the video in Los Angeles, according to Elton’s official history of the song.
The ballad from “Sleeping With the Past” peaked at No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100. Its biggest chart breakthrough came later: a 1990 re-release gave Elton his first solo UK No. 1.
“It’s not a surface song, and I think you’ll probably see that one in the coming months becoming a big, big hit,” lyricist Bernie Taupin told Music Connection before its release, uDiscover Music reported.
Inside the Elton John ‘Sacrifice’ Video With Chris Isaak
Keshishian, the director behind Madonna’s 1991 documentary “Truth or Dare,” wasn’t the first director on the job, according to Elton’s official site. Ken Russell, “who directed Elton in the film Tommy as well as the video for Nikita,” shot an earlier version that was never used, the site says.
“It’s basically about the rigours of adult love, and it’s a million miles away from ‘Your Song,'” Taupin said of his lyric in the Music Connection interview.
“Elton came up with a brilliant melody, and his performance on it gives it a lot of integrity and meaning,” Taupin added.
Elton and Taupin still write together. Taupin worked on “Who Believes in Angels?,” Elton’s 2025 album with Brandi Carlile, Gayety reported.
The 1990 Re-Release That Made ‘Sacrifice’ a UK No. 1
“Sacrifice only reached the #55 position the first time it was released as a single in the UK in October 1989,” Elton’s site says. After BBC DJ Steve Wright kept spinning it in the late spring of 1990, Elton put it back out in May as a double A-side with “Healing Hands,” the site says, “with proceeds going to the Terrence Higgins Trust AIDS charity.”
It topped the UK chart on June 23, 1990, Elton’s site says, and held No. 1 for five weeks until “Turtle Power” by Partners in Kryme took over, Official Charts’ archive shows. “[Producer Chris Thomas] had the first solo number one in England with Elton and I didn’t!” Gus Dudgeon, Elton’s main producer, laughed in 1993, according to the site. “That really did me in, because I was determined that I was going to be the guy to do that.”
Official Charts later tallied 649,000 sales for Elton’s double A-side, third-highest of 1990, in a 2021 recap noting the single was meant to raise money for AIDS charities.
Elton John in 1990: Ryan White, Sobriety and AIDS Charity
“I’ve had a long career and worked hard but I think the turning point came in 1990 when I got sober and started to do some charity work, particularly for the AIDS problem,” Elton says on his official site, in a remark about his knighthood.
Indiana teenager Ryan White died of AIDS that year. “His friendship with Ryan inspires Elton John into action,” the Elton John AIDS Foundation’s history says, and Elton set up the foundation in 1992.
Queen Elizabeth II knighted him at Buckingham Palace on Feb. 24, 1998, for services to British pop music and his AIDS fundraising, his site says. “A knighthood is the icing on the cake,” Elton says there.
The foundation’s 34th Oscars viewing party raised $10.6 million on March 15. Its work supports HIV prevention, treatment and care worldwide.
