Elton John jokes about sight issues on stage at Golden Globes

Sir Elton John presented the awards with Brandi Carlile (Yui Mok/PA)

Elton John has joked about his about sight loss on stage at the Golden Globes as he presented the best original score film prize.

The 77-year-old singer revealed in an Instagram post in September that his vision has been affected in his right eye after contracting an infection in the summer.

While presenting at the Golden Globes with Brandi Carlile, who he sang the track Never Too Late with, John told the audience: “There has been a lot of stories going … around about my regressive eyesight, and I just want to reassure everyone it is not as bad as it seems, I’m so pleased to be here with my co-host, Rihanna.”

When Carlile announced American musician Trent Reznor and English composer Atticus Ross as the winners for creating the musical score for erotic Challengers, starring Zendaya as a tennis pro who becomes a coach following an injury, John shouted “yay”.

The winners thanked Zendaya and the other cast members for their “encouragement”.

In September,  John said that a “severe eye infection” had meant he has “limited vision in one eye”.

He said then he was “healing, but it’s an extremely slow process and it will take some time before sight returns to the impacted eye”.

David Furnish and Sir Elton John (David Parry Media Assignments/PA)

At the December gala opening for the new musical The Devil Wears Prada, for which he has written the score, he said: “I haven’t been able to come to many of the previews because, as you know, I have lost my eyesight.

“So it’s hard for me to see it, but I love to hear it and, boy, it sounded good tonight.”

John’s headline set at Glastonbury in 2023 marked his last UK performance as part of his 330-date marathon Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, which he drew to a close with an emotionally charged show in Stockholm, Sweden.

Earlier this year, John became the 19th performer to earn the coveted EGOT status – a winner of an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony.

He also has two best original song Golden Globe wins for the (I’m Gonna) Love Me Again for the biopic of his life, Rocketman, and Can You Feel The Love Tonight? from the 1994 Disney film The Lion King.