MUMBAI: Elton John’s annual Oscars viewing party was not shaken by the pandemic. Keeping up a yearly tradition, the 29th Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards celebration shifted to a virtual format this year instead of its usual venue in West Hollywood.

Sunday’s gala, hosted by John, husband David Furnish and actor Neil Patrick Harris, featured a performance from pop musician Dua Lipa, who sang “Levitating,” “Pretty Please,” “Hallucinate” and “Don’t Start Now” from her acclaimed sophomore album, “Future Nostalgia.”

The crescendo of the night featured a piano-backed duet with John and Lipa - who changed into a long-sleeved silver gown embedded with diamonds. The duo performed “Bennie and the Jets” from John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” album and “Love Again” from “Future Nostalgia.”

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John and Lipa, accompanied by a choir and a violinist, sang in the middle of an ornate lobby. In their first-ever duet, they sang verses together before Lipa eventually took the lead as John backed her on piano. At the end of “Bennie and the Jets,” Lipa blew John a kiss.