Elton John has revealed that he has just finished a new album which is “so different” to all of his previous albums and “so happy”.
The legendary singer-songwriter revealed news of new music while at the Great Canadian Casino Resort in Toronto, as the recipient of the prestigious Glenn Gould Prize.
While on stage accepting the award, Sir Elton revealed that he has completed work on a new LP, which he describes as completely different to his more-than-30 previous albums. He began working on the record after retiring from touring in 2023 – having played over 300 shows on the ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ tour – and dropping the collaborative album with Brandi Carlile ‘Who Believes In Angels?’ last year.
Work on the new material also followed on from the music icon contracting a serious eye infection in 2024 and revealing that he has “only limited vision in one eye”.
He told Variety afterwards that the visual impairments were “devastating”, sharing: “I lost my right eye and my left eye’s not so good, the last 15 months have been challenging for me because I haven’t been able to see anything, watch anything, read anything.”
Acknowledging how the struggles were something that helped fuel the new album and discover a new approach to songwriting, Sir Elton told the crowd at the Glenn Gould Prize ceremony: “I’ve had eye trouble recently and I always make records by looking at lyrics and writing to lyrics, and so I’m kind of fucked at the moment.
“What my eye has given me is a chance of, at 80 years of age, completely reversing how I write. I’m writing melodies first, and lyrics coming second. I’ve never done that. And I’ve just done it.”
He continued: “And I’ve just done an album, which is so different to anything I’ve ever done before, but it’s so happy,” he continued. “I’m so thrilled with it because it’s given me another chance to make music.
“If don’t listen to music, I’m dead. Music is my soul, my driving force. It is everything and has been everything to me all my life.”
The Glenn Gould Prize honours people who have made “a unique lifetime contribution that has enriched the human condition through the arts.” Recipients are awarded $100,000, and the ‘Tiny Dancer’ singer donated the sum back to the Glenn Gould Foundation.
Also at the awards ceremony, which was held over the weekend, Sir Elton chose “immaculate” singer Emily D’Angelo as the winner of the Glenn Gould Protégé Prize, and also used his time on stage to take aim at Donald Trump.
“It’s so nice to be in Canada and have a concert for Canadian artists, who all I know. It’s also nice to be in a country that has common sense,” he said.
“And I can tell you, it’s not the fucking 51st state, either. It’s a country that has accepted immigrants and does not throw them out. It’s a country that embraces all sorts of people, all races, and I love it.”
While Sir Elton has retired from large-scale touring, he is still playing the occasional live show. Last year he performed with Brandi Carlile at a televised show at the London Palladium, and then paid tribute to Brian Wilson with a cover of ‘God Only Knows’ at the 2025 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony.
More recently he was unveiled as the first headliner for Rock in Rio 2026, revealed that he turned his kneecaps into jewellery, and made a brief cameo appearance in the sequel film Spinal Tap 2: The End Continues.
He was also among the artists to urge Keir Starmer to protect the work of creatives from the growing threat of AI and the infringement on protected copyrighted material.
Back in 2021, the ‘Rocket Man’ singer spoke to NME about his legacy and unwavering determination to continue making music and championing new talent.
“I’ve never lost the desire to hear new music,” he said, explaining that his Apple Music show Rocket Hour had introduced him “to a whole ballgame of new artists – music that I wouldn’t otherwise necessarily have heard because Apple send me a lot of stuff.”
“However, I also scan the websites of the NME and places like that to find records that I wouldn’t have heard,” he added. “I’m always on the lookout for new things. I’ve become friends with most young artists on the record, and I just love promoting new records.”
As for his plans in the future, he said: “I will do records and I’ll do my radio show, but as far as schlepping and doing shows? I’ve had enough applause. I wanna be with my family. I wanna be with my boys.
“I’ll still be creative, but I don’t want to spend the rest of my life flying here, flying there. I can’t do any more than I’ve done now and save for the odd charity thing that may come up, that’s it for me.”
