British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who died Monday at age 87, inspired pop culture for decades. Her politics and her presence had a special influence on the British music scene, as she rose to power just as a new generation of musicians were making their mark on the art form. In the U.S., she may be best remembered for the 2011 film "The Iron Lady," which won Meryl Streep an Oscar and was not without controversy itself, inventing memories and thoughts for an elderly Thatcher.  

Here's a quick look at some of the ways Thatcher was portrayed in the arts world.

Iron Lady, big screen
Thatcher may be most recently remembered from her 2011 portrayal in "The Iron Lady," which won Meryl Streep her third Oscar. But the movie received mixed reviews, and was criticized by some for not taking a stand on Thatcher's politics. "Was she a monster? A heroine? The movie has no opinion," late critic Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times. "She was a fact. You leave the movie having witnessed it. Whatever your feelings were about Thatcher were before you saw it, you now have some images to accompany it."

Streep issued a statement on Monday, which read in part, "To me she was a figure of awe for her personal strength and grit. To have come up, legitimately,  through the ranks of the British political system, class bound and gender phobic as it was, in the time that she did and the way that she did, was a formidable achievement. ... I was honored to try to imagine her late life journey, after power; but I have only a glancing understanding of what her many struggles were, and how she managed to sail through to the other side. I wish to convey my respectful condolences to her family and many friends."

Thatcher's time in office provided the backdrop for the 2000 film "Billy Elliot," which took place amid a 1984-87 coal miner's strike that gave Thatcher a solid victory and more or less broke the trade unions. The musical version that hit Broadway featured an Elton John song, "Merry Christmas, Maggie Thatcher," in which children sang, "We all celebrate today/'Cause it's one day closer to your death." 

Protest songs
Musicians coalesced around songs that beat down Thatcher and her policies, and that anti-government feeling arguably helped fuel the growth of the country's punk and ska music scenes. Many songs actively looked forward to her death, and singers like Billy Bragg and Morrissey typified some of the angriest lashings out at their leader, with songs like "Margaret on the Guillotine" (Morrissey) and Elvis Costello's "Tramp the Dirt Down." Sinead O'Connor sang about the shooting of a black British man that allegedly was covered up by police in "Black Boys on Mopeds" while Genesis used a "Spitting Image" puppet of Thatcher in their "Land of Confusion" video (which also satirized other world leaders, including Ronald Reagan).

A large number of influential British bands got their start during Thatcher's time in office, including The Clash, Gang of Four and The Jam. Her time in office provided lyrical inspiration as well as the impetus for songwriting. Musician Billy Bragg told The Guardian, "Whenever I'm asked to name my greatest inspiration, I always answer, 'Margaret Thatcher.' ... Try as I might to resist her, she provided the backdrop for all the songs I wrote in that turbulent period."

Live from New York, it's Maggie Thatcher
At home in England, the prime minister was the inspiration for any number of TV series -- including the original version of "House of Cards" in 1990, which features a fictional successor to Thatcher. As recently as 2009, two productions, "Margaret" and "The Queen" offered up modern looks at Thatcher, but for sheer American satire it's hard to beat late-night television. "Monty Python" member Michael Palin hosted "Saturday Night Live" in 1979 just a week after Thatcher's election as prime minister, and appeared as Thatcher. Palin's Thatcher even got to utter the catchphrase of the day, "Jane, you ignorant slut," after a grilling by Jane Curtin on the show's "Weekend Update" segment. And in the early 1980s, "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson played a practical joke on Joan Rivers, hiring a Thatcher lookalike to talk to her about her jokes about the royal family. 

Comic strips and books
Thatcher was ripe for cartooning and caricaturing. She popped up in hundreds of political comics over the years, and even got space in Bloom County. Any number of books about her rule -- including a few written by Thatcher herself -- gave her a significant non-fictional section on the shelf. But for those savvy readers who grew up during her time in office, few fictional takes encompass what it was like to live in the Thatcher years like Sue Townsend's "Adrian Mole" young adult book series. Mole even wrote a poem to his prime minister, called "Mrs. Thatcher": "Do you weep, Mrs. Thatcher, do you weep?" he asked.

Related content:

• Margaret Thatcher, 'Iron Lady' who led Britain, dies at 87
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• Review: 'Iron Lady' less about Thatcher than aging

First Justin Bieber, then Rihanna and now... Elton John?! Apparently, concert cancellations are in the air.

The British singer has cancelled his Friday night show at the Birmingham Jefferson Complex Arena in Alabama "due to medical reasons," a rep for the music legend tells E! News.

Andres Cristaldo / EPA file

Elton John performs in Paraguay on March 6.

All the details on Elton's lavish Oscar party!

Ticketmaster announced the cancellation just hours before the show on its website.

Refunds will be available at point of purchase on Monday, while tickets purchased online or by phone will be automatically refunded.

No word yet in on the piano player's specific medical issues.

Get well soon, Elton!

Here are more musicians performing live on stage

Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images

Elton John and David Furnish following their civil partnership ceremony in 2005.

British pop star Elton John announced on Wednesday he had become a father for the second time after the birth via a surrogate mother of Elijah Joseph Daniel Furnish-John.

The "Rocket Man" and "Candle in the Wind" singer and his partner David Furnish confirmed the news in a short statement on John's official website, which also provided a link to an article in Hello! magazine.

"Both of us have longed to have children, but the reality that we now have two sons is almost unbelievable," said the couple, who entered a civil partnership in 2005.

"The birth of our second son completes our family in a most precious and perfect way," they told Hello!

John, 65, and Furnish, 50, are already parents to Zachary, who is two. Elijah was born in Los Angeles on January 11.

"I know when he goes to school there's going to be an awful lot of pressure, and I know he's going to have people saying, 'You don't have a mummy,'" John said of his decision to have another baby.

"It's going to happen. We talked about it before we had him. I want someone to be at his side and back him up. We shall see."

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Dave J Hogan / Getty Images

Madonna performs during her MDNA Tour at The NIA Arena in Birmingham, England, on July 19.

Gun-wielding, nipple-baring, swastika-flashing Madonna has a new person to add to her list of detractors. Or rather, an old one: Elton John.

The "Rocket Man" singer has once again fired up his ongoing feud with the controversy-courting pop star, slamming her for her on- and offstage antics while labeling her a "[expletive] fairground stripper."

Oof.

Elton John's not-so-friendly Super Bowl advice to Madonna

During an interview with Australian TV show "Sunday Night," John bristled at the mere mention of Madonna's name, saying, "She's such a nightmare. Her career's over."

He didn't stop there, later ranting that "she looks like a [expletive] fairground stripper."

"If Madonna had any common sense she would have made a record like 'Ray of Light'," he reportedly added, "and stayed away from the dance stuff and just been a great pop singer and make great pop records, which she does brilliantly."

John's beef seemed to stem from Madonna's various digs at Lady Gaga, who is the godmother of his and husband David Furnish's 19-month-old son, Zachary.

David Furnish slams Madonna's Golden Globe win

In May, Madonna performed a curious mash-up of "Born This Way" and "Express Yourself" that many saw as a sharp jab at Mama Monster.

"[Madonna's] been so horrible to Gaga," John told "Sunday Night."

John's feud with Madge goes back to 2004, when -- while accepting an award onstage -- he accused her of lip-syncing.

He dissed her again earlier this year during an interview with "Good Morning America," in which he offered some advice to Madge as she prepped for her performance at the Super Bowl halftime show.

"Make sure you lip-sync good," he said.

All right, Madge: Your move.

Check out Madonna's exes

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In the second portion of Matt Lauer's interview with Elton John on TODAY, the always-candid singer opened up about the moment he knew he needed to clean up his lifestyle, or else.

John performed at his friend Ryan White's funeral in 1990, and when he saw the footage, he was shocked. "I look like a bloated, white, gray-haired old -- you know, it was horrifying. The way I was feeling deep inside of me -- it was enough to wake anybody up," he said. "Ryan White inspired me to change my life. If there was ever a message -- and in life you get messages -- this was a message from wherever. It's like, 'You clean up your life or you're gonna die. And your epitaph will not be good.'"

John said that the singular trip to rehab after that realization worked because it was not an experience where he was pampered in any way, like the rehabs we hear so often of. "You know, to actually wake up in the morning at 6:00 and clean your room. It was like boot camp. It wasn't a flashy -- it was a hospital in Chicago. There was no televisions. There was no nothing," John said. "I say at 43 I learned to live my life all over again by taking different steps. It's a miracle I'm talking to you right now."

John's belief in tough love isn't limited to himself -- he's been very outspoken about his feelings regarding longtime touring mate Billy Joel's drinking, for example. In 2011 on TODAY, John told Lauer that Joel "hates me at the moment" for comments that Joel had gone to "rehab light," and would never get rid of his demons unless he abandoned "rehab light." John told Lauer in Wednesday's interview that he an Joel haven't been in contact since those comments.

"He wrote me a thing, 'You're -- you -- you shouldn't judge people. Who are you to judge?' And I said it because I thought it might get through. And I can understand he being angry about that. And we haven't really communicated since," John said. "And Billy Joel is the kindest, sweetest man, and the most talented songwriter and great, great artist. If he called me tomorrow and said  'Let's have lunch,' I'd go like -- like a shot. 'Cause I adore him. I only said it as tough love. They call it 'tough love.' But he was upset. And I'm sorry I upset him."

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In the first of a two-part interview with TODAY's Matt Lauer, Elton John discussed why he waited to reveal to the public that he was gay. As it turns out, John, who had been living an openly gay lifestyle among his family and friends, didn't realize that actually coming out was going to be necessary.

"Nobody asked me," John recalled of the years leading up to the moment when he finally told a journalist that he was indeed gay. "When Cliff Jahr asked me in Rolling Stone, 'I'm gonna ask you a question, but if you don't want to answer it, I'm gonna turn the tape recorder off.' And I said, 'You're gonna ask me if I'm gay or not.' And he said, 'How did you know that?' I said, 'I've been waitin' for people to ask me this. It's not exactly a secret. I live with my manager. I'm openly gay outside. I don't have a girlfriend. And nobody's ever actually out -- I just thought it was common knowledge.'"

Elton John writes of life, loss and AIDS in 'Love is the Cure'

John also discussed his devotion to Ryan White, the young boy who contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion, and whose plight captivated the nation. "I just felt for him, this kid who was -- you know, just because he had the HIV virus, his family were being discriminated, he was forced to move to another town, bullets fired through their windows, firebombs through their letterbox. Wasn't allowed to go to school," John told Lauer.

John's conversation with Lauer is pegged to the release of his book, "Love is the Cure: On life, loss and the end of AIDS," in which he reveals, among other things, that Princess Diana wanted to work with his AIDS foundation.

"She wanted to do something desperately for the AIDS foundation," John said. "She was amazing, because she was the first person of the royal family or someone that famous to go out into an AIDS ward and touch people and hold them and hug them. And, you know, at a time when people, 'Ooh, don't touch them, you know, you might get AIDS.'

"She was fearless in that respect. And she was fearless in anything she did, whether it came to landmines or whether to AIDS. She was genuine and so 150 percent behind the cause."

For more of Lauer's conversation with the singer, tune in to TODAY on Wednesday.

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Dave Hogan/NBC

Matt Lauer and Elton John

Singer Elton John sat down with TODAY's Matt Lauer in an exclusive interview about his memoir, "Love is the Cure: On Life, Loss and the End of AIDS." John spoke candidly about the decades leading up to where he is now, saying that he "wasted" much of his time on drugs and addiction, especially during the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.

"I wasted such a big part of my life, when this epidemic was beginning to happen in the early 1980s. And I was a drug addict and self-absorbed," he told Lauer from his home outside London. "You know, I was having people die right, left and center around me, friends.  And yet, I didn't stop the life that I had, which is the terrible thing about addiction.  It's that -- you know, it's that bad of a disease."

In his book -- sales of which will benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation -- John writes, "I was consumed by cocaine, booze, and who knows what else.  I apparently never got the memo that the me generation had ended."

John told Lauer he feels guilty about that time, but "I'm making up for it.  There is so much more to be done."

The two also discussed John's sexuality, and his fears -- or lack thereof -- about living publicly as a gay man, even though coming out impacted his career.

"In America, people burned my records for a second and radio stations didn't play me.  It didn't have any effect like the Dixie Chicks had when they made the anti-Iraq statements and their career was ruined," John said. "So by me saying gay in the 1970s -- it didn't have a big effect on me whatsoever."

John also told Lauer that he didn't fear AIDS during his time of living more recklessly.

"You know what?  When you take a drug and you take a drink and you mix those two together, you think you're invincible," John  said. "I came out of this HIV-negative. I was the luckiest man in the world."

John's lifestyle is now vastly different from the way he lived in the 1980s. Not only is he sober, but he's married to husband David Furnish, and the two have a son Zachary, who was born via surrogate on Christmas Day 2010.

"I'd love to have more children.  And also Zachary, being the child of a famous person is hard.  And I would like him to have -- you know, when he's four and he starts going to preschool kids will say, 'You don't have a mummy.'  And we know that. We talked about this before we had Zachary.  And we're gonna say, 'Well, listen, there's gonna be consequences involved in having a child when you're two gay parents.'" he explained. "And I want him to have a brother or a sister to go to school with him.  And so that he can have someone to play with."

You can tune in to TODAY for the rest of the interview, which will air in two parts Tuesday and Wednesday, July 17 and 18.

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KIEV -- Elton John used an AIDS charity concert in Kiev on Saturday to make an emotional appeal to Ukraine to stop what he called persecution of gays.

Gleb Garanich / Reuters

Singer Elton John performs at a charity concert dedicated to the fight against HIV/AIDS at Independence Square in Kiev on June 30.

The 65-year-old singer broke off during a two-hour performance, part of the Euro 2012 soccer tournament co-hosted by Ukraine, to speak about reports of physical attacks on members of the former Soviet republic's gay community.

John, a regular visitor to the country, drew cheers from thousands of Ukrainians watching his performance on huge street screens when he described Ukraine as "my second home".

"Recently I read about violence against gay people in Ukraine. Beating up gay people is wrong. This for me does not symbolize Ukraine," he said.

"I plead with you: Stop the violence against gay people."

Ahead of the European soccer championship which began on June 8 and ends on Sunday with the final in Kiev, a gay pride march in the Ukrainian capital was called off and one of its leaders was beaten by assailants.

Last Saturday, another leading Ukrainian gay rights activist said he had received hospital treatment after being beaten in Kiev by a group of assailants, who screamed homophobic insults at him.

John, who entered a civil partnership with David Furnish in 2005, regularly champions respect for gay and lesbian rights.

Larry Marano / Getty Images

Elton John

Update: Elton John's publicist confirms to TODAY.com that John has been released from the hospital. No other details about John were released.

Original story: Singer Elton John was hospitalized for a serious respiratory infection Wednesday and will have to cancel several tour dates, TMZ is reporting.

According to the site, John checked into Cedars-Sinai hospital in L.A., and his doctors recommended that he not perform for seven days, citing the need for "complete rest and antibiotic treatment to prevent damage."

Four concerts scheduled for this weekend in Las Vegas were canceled, but they will be rescheduled.

"It feels strange not to be able to perform these 'Million Dollar Piano' concerts at the Colosseum (at Caesars Palace)," John told TMZ. "I love performing the show and I will be thrilled when we return to the Colosseum in October to complete the 11 concerts."

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Larry Marano / Getty Images

Elton John performs in Sunrise, Fla., on March 9.

Elton John has accomplished a lot in his 65 years, but the thing he's most proud of? Getting clean and sober in 1990.

And he says if he didn't he would be another rock 'n' roll casualty.

MORE: Elton John opens up on being bullied as an adult

"I could have so easily ended up like Whitney Houston," he says in a candid interview with E! News' David Burtka. (The official cause of Houston's Feb. 11 death was a combination of accidental drowning, cocaine use and heart disease.)

"It's a miracle I didn't," he continues. "Because I'm sure I did as much cocaine as she ever did."

GALLERY: Whitney Houston's highs and lows

And John is grateful he had the willpower to quit.

"I would not be the person I am today [if I hadn't]," he says. "I wouldn't have [my son] Zachary, [my husband] David [Furnish]. I wouldn't have anything. I'd probably be dead."

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Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images

Elton John plays the song "Pinball Wizard" in the "The Who's" rock opera movie "Tommy" which was released on March 26, 1975 in the United Kingdom.

In his 1972 hit “Crocodile Rock,” Elton John nostalgically sung that he “remembered when rock was young.” As the iconic British rocker turns 65 on Sunday, March 25, it’s now John himself that millions remember from when rock was young, since his music has provided a soundtrack for every generation since the 1970s.

John, who was born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, was never as beloved by critics as the '60s performers who came before him. But as the decades rolled on and the hits kept coming, he became an unlikely survivor from the crash-and-burn world of '70s rock. His influence is now so wide it can be seen in Lady Gaga (the godmother of his son) and heard in Billy Joel and even post-grunge acts like Fuel, who covered his 1973 smash “Daniel.”

Larry Marano / Getty Images

Elton John performs at BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla., on March 9.

John emerged as a singer-songwriter in the late 1960s, but made his name burning up stages dressed in outlandish costumes, singing glam rock-inspired songs like “Saturday Night’s All Right for Fighting” and “The Bitch is Back.” When the ’70s ended, it seemed like his career would as well. But he staged a major comeback in the 1980s, arguably equaling his earlier music with rockers such as “I’m Still Standing” and ballads like “Sad Songs Say So Much.” He also took a daring career risk, coming out as bisexual (and eventually gay), and advocating early on for AIDS awareness.

In 1997, when John re-wrote his 1973 song (and 1987 hit) “Candle in the Wind” as a tribute to the late Princess Diana, Rolling Stone guitarist Keith Richards cracked that John had a thing for “writing songs about dead blondes.” Funny, but John had the last laugh, since the re-recording, also known as “Goodbye England’s Rose,” became the second biggest selling single ever, according to Guinness World Records. Not what you’d expect from a veteran performer, but exactly the kind of surprise success for which John is known. He’s currently touring and plans to release his 31st studio album, “The Diving Board,” this fall.

Check out some of John's greatest hits in the videos below, and vote for your favorite song. And join us on Facebook to discuss the music icon's life and career.

'Your Song'

'Crocodile Rock'

'Benny and the Jets'

'Phialdelphia Freedom'

'Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me' (with George Michael)

'Candle in the Wind 1997'