Elton John

With a remarkable journey spanning five years and 330 shows, the tour came to a close on Saturday night, leaving fans in awe.

During the final show, Elton John expressed his deep gratitude to the audience, declaring, "It's been my lifeblood to play for you guys, and you've been absolutely magnificent." The tour, which initially commenced in 2018, faced a nearly two-year delay due to the global COVID-19 pandemic before finally resuming in 2022.

Titled Merry Christmas, it's a bittersweet track that celebrates the season while remembering "the ones who have gone" in a painful year.

Complete with sleigh bells, ding-dongs and celestial choirs, it is one of three songs the stars wrote after Sir Elton pitched the idea last Christmas.

But the duo face stiff competition in the charts from Adele and LadBaby.

(Scroll down to read more about this year's contenders)

The 70-year-old singer, who is one of the best-selling recording artists in the world, said his priorities have changed after becoming a parent to two children with his husband David Furnish.

"I love them so much. I don't want to miss them and I don't want them to miss me," he said. "I've had a good run."

John said he has been on the road since he was 17.

He denied British media reports that he was quitting touring because of ill health.

The 70-year old legendary singer told his Instagram followers he was "overwhelmed with gratitude" and "getting stronger every day."

"During a recent, successful tour of South America, Elton contracted a harmful and unusual bacterial infection," Caesars Palace said in a statement posted to its Facebook page. On his return flight from Santiago, Chile, he became violently ill, according to the post.

The British pop star has selected the 25-year-old to be on the judging panel for The Cut, a YouTube competition and talent search for music video directors.

“Elton John is basically running a really big competition and inviting any creative to create something for his most classic songs," she said.

“It could be a director, a choreographer or a dance team or even a painter. Whatever it is, you can submit a video set to his music and I was chosen to be a part of the judging panel. It’s pretty big.”

"We are putting together our financing," the music legend's husband David Furnish told me earlier today at a preview of the Elton John AIDS Foundation's Oscar party in West Hollywood. "It's an ongoing process raising money for a film and we also want to make it in the way we feel it needs to be made. It's a musical fantasy biopic. It's very much an exaggerated, magnificent version of Elton's life as it might have happened so we very much want the right partners and finance in place to do the job properly."