He may be his 'dear friend', but Elton John needs to work on how to pronounced Ed Sheeran's name correctly.

When introducing Sheeran ahead of his award for 'Global Success' at the BRIT Awards last night, John had the most unusual pronunciation of the Irish surname that we've ever heard.

'Sh'ran'? 'Shran'? 'Shi-ran'? Whatever he said, it sounded plain odd. C'mon, Elton - it's two simple syllables. Then again, he has pronounced Cavan as 'Cah-vawn' when talking about The Strypes in the past.

His gaffe didn't go unnoticed, either: