Songfacts®:

• Elton John teams up with Stevie Wonder on this gospel-flavored track. It finds the two music legends singing about surviving tough times with the help of a friend.
• Elton and Stevie have been buddies for five decades and previously teamed up for the 1985 HIV/AIDS charity single "That's What Friends Are For," along with Dionne Warwick and Gladys Knight. The pair also collaborated on "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" (Wonder contributed harmonica). By recording their first actual duet together, the two longtime friends are finally crossing the finish line.
• Elton John wrote the song with:
  
  Songwriters Ali Tamposi and Roman Campolo. The pair helped pen several of BTS' tunes, including "Airplane pt. 2," and "Idol."
  
  Producer Andrew Watt, who often works with Ali Tamposi. Watt and Tamposi's previous collaborations include Camila Cabello's "Havana," 5 Seconds of Summer's "Youngblood," Miley Cyrus' "Midnight Sky," and Justin Bieber's "Hold On."
• The song finds both artists singing and playing piano. Stevie also contributes a signature harmonica solo while Kanye West's Sunday Service gospel choir backs them up.
• Elton John usually writes to lyric (his main song writing partner and lyricist, Bernie Taupin, normally sends him the words, to which John composes the music). "Finish Line" was one of the rare occasions when he wrote the melody first in the studio. Speaking to Andrew Watt on Elton's Rocket Hour on Apple Music 1, the "Rocket Man" hitmaker explained that after penning the melody, Watt, Ali Tamposi and Roman Campolo added words to it.
  
  Then Stevie Wonder came into the studio and played piano and harmonica on the track. At first the Motown icon wouldn't contribute vocals because "he thought he'd done enough," but after Watt put the Sunday Service choir on, Stevie decided to do the vocal.
• Elton told Billboard he identified with Watt, Ali Tamposi and Roman Campolo's lyrics, which address going through hard times before finding redemption. Having battled alcoholism and drugs, and been through many toxic relationships, he found redemption with his marriage to David Furnish and their two children.
• Elton recorded the song for The Lockdown Sessions, an album of collaborations with various artists recorded over 18 months during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Zach Sekuler directed the video, which displays a montage of landmark events in Stevie and Elton's lives and of their lifelong friendship.