Elton John says the royal wedding was a historic moment for Britain

The musician Elton John has described the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as a historic moment that blazed a trail for the British royal family. John told CNN that that the marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was a "wonderful" occasion that also represented a cultural shift. "It was very, very wonderful to be there. To have a black gospel choir, a multiracial bride, a black cellist, who was wonderful, a preacher -- it felt like a party, and it felt like progress had been made. Thank god, thank god," John said.

John -- who was a friend of the duke's mother, the late Princess Diana -- performed three songs for the newlyweds at an afternoon wedding reception hosted by the Queen at Windsor Castle's St. George's Hall in May. "To be at the first multiracial royal wedding in Britain -- amazing," he added.

Asked whether it was historic, he said: "Oh absolutely. Are you kidding me? Yes, of course. You go back and watch The Crown and things like that, and in the 1950s Princess Margaret wasn't allowed to get married (to Group Captain Peter Townsend) because he was divorced. Look how far we have come in that respect."

John spoke to CNN at the 2018 International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam, where he joined Prince Harry in announcing the launch of the MenStar Coalition project, a billion dollar global partnership. The coalition's first initiative will be to launch a new HIV self-testing campaign aimed at young men in Kenya.