The fact that Elton John and partner David Furnish regularly hobnob with Royals and other various Hello stalwarts in the New Millennium shouldn't obscure the fact that Sir Elton's achievements are unique in the history of British pop. Born in 1975 as the youngest of seven in Christchurch, New Zealand, she moved to the States as a teenager and studied music theory and history at Columbia in New York, earning an MFA while gathering notes and doing research for her publishing debut.