An Evening with Elton John and Brandi Carlile, filmed on March 26 at the iconic London Palladium, premieres tonight on CBS. The duo were accompanied by a live band.

In addition to CBS, Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers will have access to stream An Evening with Elton John and Brandi Carlile live via the live feed of their local CBS affiliate on the service, as well as on-demand. Paramount+ Essential subscribers will not have the option to stream live but will have access to on-demand the day after the special airs.

The initially scheduled hour was rather short for a concert special as both Billy Joel and Ringo Starr aired for two hours with commercials. CBS later added another half hour to the concert special, which featured captivating stories about the pair’s enduring friendship and an intimate look at their new joint album, Who Believes in Angels? The album was just released on April 4 via Interscope Records.

As was the case for the aforementioned concert specials, I’ll be providing live updates of the setlist for An Evening with Elton John and Brandi Carlile. The original press release listed an airtime of a single hour. They’ve since updated the release to account for another half hour in the broadcast. Only eight songs were broadcast after the first hour. They performed fifteen songs during the March 26 concert, which also included a sit-down conversation with Schitt’s Creek‘s Dan Levy.

The performers played a selection of their individual greatest hits, including timeless classics from Elton John’s catalogue and a very special performance of an unreleased track by Brandi Carlile. They were backed by The Hanseroth Twins, SistaStrings, Chad Smith, and Andrew Watt.

An Evening with Elton John and Brandi Carlile Setlist

• I’m Still Standing
• Who Believes in Angels?
• Your Song
• The Joke (sung by Brandi Carlile)
• Swing for the Fences (Live debut)
• Tiny Dancer
• Crazy (Patsy Cline cover)
• Bennie and the Jets
• You Without Me (Brandi Carlile) (Live debut)
• Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me
• Little Richard’s Bible (Live debut)

Original Concert Setlist

• Who Believes in Angels?
• Swing for the Fences (Live debut)
• Little Richard’s Bible (Live debut)
• The Joke (sung by Brandi Carlile)
• You Without Me (Brandi Carlile) (Live debut)
• I Need You to Turn To*
• Tiny Dancer
• Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me
• I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues*
• Crazy (Patsy Cline cover)
• He’ll Have to Go (Jim Reeves cover)*
• Your Song
• The Story (sung by Brandi Carlile)*
• Bennie and the Jets
• I’m Still Standing

The songs running in a different order from the original concert is becoming the norm for televised concert specials. What’s become something of a disappointment is how musical numbers are being completely cut from the broadcast. The recent Ringo & Friends special seems to be the exception to the rule. An Evening with Elton John and Brandi Carlile fell short in that only 11 of 15 songs were included in the broadcast.

Both Elton John and Brandi Carlile have been friends for 20 years so I don’t blame them one bit for pulling back the curtain on their friendship during their intimate sit-down conversation with Dan Levy. They also discussed their collaboration process for the new album, now available for purchase. If anything, CBS could have just made it an outright two-hour broadcast. This way, they could have included all 15 songs and weaved in both the conversation and studio footage as necessary.

During the conversation, Brandi Carlile mentions how she wouldn’t have gone into music without Elton John. She had written him a letter asking if he could perform on her album and he said that he’d do so if she could get to Las Vegas. This segued into clips of Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith and others offering video tributes to either Elton John or Brandi Carlile. Other portions of the conversation throughout the show touch on other subjects.

An Evening with Elton John and Brandi Carlile made for an entertaining and insightful broadcast but needed more time to fit in the rest of the concert.

An Evening with Elton John and Brandi Carlile is produced by Fulwell Entertainment with Ben Winston, Gabe Turner and Sally Wood serving as executive producers.

An Evening with Elton John and Brandi Carlile will air on April 6, 2025 at 8-9:30 PM ET/PT on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. Grade: 3.5/5

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