It’s no secret that Elton John adores Taron Egerton. Elton has praised Taron’s portrayal of him in the biopic Rocketman, and asked him to voice the audiobook of his memoir. But an interview with Entertainment Weekly has revealed the true depth of the friendship – Elton has bestowed upon Taron Egerton the honour of a drag name.
Her name? Blodwyn Campervan.
Blodwyn.
Campervan.
I’ll openly admit I’m absolutely, completely unqualified to question Elton John’s creative integrity. However, as someone [who struggles] with a Celtic name myself, I do feel qualified to say that’s not the prettiest one you could pick.
‘Blodwyn’ means “white flower, fair, and blessed” in Welsh. Even though ‘white flower’ does seem like a reasonably accurate description of the actor, it’s a fairly predictable homage to Taron Egerton’s homeland and heritage, and it’s also an ugly one. Sorry, not sorry!
The Welsh language has lots of ‘ugly’ hard sounds, but there are other options Elton. What about ‘Mererid’ or ‘Delyth’? Not that Taron would be complaining – he did go to school in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch after all.
And can we talk about that surname?! Elton’s justification is that it’s a reference to Taron Egerton’s “love of taking vacations in a small RV with his girlfriend” but I’m not convinced. This feels like a prank.
At least most other drag names with nouns in them are pun-based. Like ‘Esther Gin’, or ‘Tasha Salad’. To the uneducated observer, Blodwyn Campervan just implies Elton John is somehow still in his LOL RANDOM XD phase.
It reminds me of one thing and one thing only – those cringy Facebook memes that you always see your mum tagging her friends in. You know the ones, they give you a formula for finding your serial killer name or your pet’s elf name, and boomers think they’re God’s gift to comedy.
Hang on a sec. Elton John is a Baby Boomer. Can we be certain that he didn’t choose Taron Egerton’s drag name this way? Do we need to launch a full-scale investigation? And who’s going to break the bad news to Taron?