NEW YORK — It wasn’t a typical night on the fund-raising circuit, as Sir Elton John turned the Breast Cancer Research Foundation’s 10th annual gala at the Waldorf-Astoria Monday into a massive sing-along that raised a record-breaking $5.5 million for the cause.
The superstar performed for more than an hour before an audience packed into the Grand Ballroom, inspiring the black-tie crowd to belt out such hits as “Rocket Man,” “Tiny Dancer” and “Daniel.”
John — along with Estée Lauder spokeswomen Elizabeth Hurley, Carolyn Murphy and Liya Kebede and a raft of other notables, including Libby Pataki and Michael Bloomberg —?were soldiering on in place of the evening’s real star, BCRF founder and Lauder senior corporate vice president Evelyn Lauder, who was mourning the death of her mother-in-law, Estée Lauder.