Jacinda Ardern meets Sir Elton John: PM reflects on 'incredible' and 'generous' performance

Jacinda Ardern has opened up about meeting Sir Elton John backstage in Auckland before he was forced to cut his show short after falling ill.

The Prime Minister revealed at her Monday post-Cabinet press conference that she attended Sir Elton's Sunday night gig at Mt Smart Stadium and shared a "brief" conversation with him.

"Yes I did actually meet him," Ardern confirmed to reporters. "We didn't sing a duet... we talked like normal people but very briefly."

The music legend told the crowd on Sunday night he had been diagnosed with "walking pneumonia" earlier in the day, and despite his efforts to battle through his set, he was forced to call a halt.

"I think given he had what they call 'walking pneumonia', the fact that he spent roughly two hours on a stage giving such a huge performance was incredible and very generous," Ardern said.

The Prime Minister said she noticed Sir Elton did not look well backstage.

"You could tell he wasn't feeling well and he said he wasn't feeling well so I think you could see that on the stage last night."

She said backstage they discussed "a bit of politics" and that she "might have commented" on how her daughter Neve enjoys dancing to his music.

"Just things you would have a normal conversation about."

Sir Elton has postponed his Tuesday Mt Smart Stadium concert and will perform the following day instead to allow an extra day to recover.

Ardern said her message to Sir Elton is to "get well soon".

National leader Simon Bridges also attended Sir Elton's Sunday night concert with his family, describing the concert as "great, for the most part" and that the pop star's voice was "really good".

"But after 9pm, when he came back on stage, his voice just wasn't coming out," Bridges told Magic Talk Monday morning.

"It was very poignant actually, he got very emotional and he was miming 'sorry' and that was that.

"One of my boys was asleep so he didn't miss much and the other one was very emotional - the older one, and he wouldn't let me say a bad word against Elton."

The 72-year-old UK singer, songwriter, pianist, and composer professed his admiration for Ardern in October 2019, revealing that if he could be any woman alive, it would be her.

Sir Elton, known for hits like 'Rocket Man', made the revelation when he was asked a number of random questions in an A-lister Q&A, ahead of the release of his autobiography Me.

Among the celebrities to put a question to Sir Elton was Suicide Squad actor and model Cara Delevigne, who asked him: "If you could be one woman alive and one woman from the past, who would you be?"

Sir Elton said while it was difficult to choose someone today with "so many candidates", he chose Ardern because she's "one of the few politicians that I respect and love".

He described the Prime Minister as "humane" with "dignity", and said she's "doing a brilliant job".

Ardern said at the time she was "humbled", "flattered" and "more than a little surprised" by pop legend's professed admiration of her.