ARTIST · POP / ROCK

Elton John

Glam piano thunder and ballad vulnerability—West End emotion delivered with American radio muscle.

Pop rock
Piano rock

Updated 27 October 2026

Listen on NCR All artists

Biography

Elton John turned classically tinged piano pop into stadium ritual, leaning on Bernie Taupin’s cinematic imagery.

From singer-songwriter intimacy to full-band rockers, his catalogue spans decades without losing melodic identity.

Adult formats still programme his piano ballads when they want uplift weighted with lived-in lyric detail.

Remastered streams highlight string arrangements, Leslie-speaker guitars, and Davey Johnstone’s electric counterpoint.

John studied at the Royal Academy of Music as a boy and met lyricist Bernie Taupin through a record-label advertisement. Their partnership produced Elton John (1970), Madman Across the Water (1971), Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973), and Captain Fantasy and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975). He also wrote the music for Disney’s The Lion King and the stage musicals Aida and Billy Elliot.

He founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992 and rewrote Candle in the Wind for Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997. His career has been marked by flamboyant stagecraft, including oversize glasses and sequined costumes.

Elton John: recent news, 2020–2026

2021 The Lockdown Sessions, an album of collaborations recorded during the pandemic, was released in October.
2022 Cold Heart (Pnau remix), a collaboration with Dua Lipa, was a hit.
2023 The Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour finished in Stockholm in July, after he headlined Glastonbury in June.
2025 Who Believes in Angels?, an album with Brandi Carlile, was released in April.

Interesting facts about Elton John

01 English singer, pianist, and composer born Reginald Kenneth Dwight in Pinner, Middlesex.
02 Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and knighted for services to music and charity.
03 Long collaborated with lyricist Bernie Taupin on the majority of his classic songs.
04 Studied at the Royal Academy of Music as a child.
05 Founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992.