As if Britney Spears fans – and let’s be honest, who among us isn’t a Britney Spears fan? – didn’t already have enough to celebrate with the star being released from her troubling 13-year conservatorship earlier last year, new music is HERE.
And not just any music – six years since her last new music, Britney was back in the studio last month to record her part for a surprise duet with fellow pop icon Elton John.
The song, Hold Me Closer and will be a ‘mash up’ of his former hits Tiny Dancer, released in 1971, and The One, which hit the charts twenty years later.
Speaking to The Guardian, Sir Elton explained that it was actually his husband David Furnish’s idea to get the Baby One More Time singer to feature on the track.
‘I said, that’s a pretty amazing idea. She hadn’t done anything for so long. I’d been following what’s been happening to her for a long time,’ he explained.
‘It’s hard when you’re young. Britney was broken. I was broken when I got sober. I was in a terrible place. I’ve been through that broken feeling and it’s horrible. And luckily enough, I’ve been sober for 32 years and it’s the happiest I’ve ever been.
He continued, ‘Now I’ve got the experience to be able to advise people and help them because I don’t want to see any artists in a dark place. A lot of artists, you’d think they’d have a lot of self-esteem but they don’t, and that’s why we go onstage and we get the applause, and then we come offstage and we’re back to square one.’
And speaking of his excitement about the record – after a tough time persuading Britney to actually release it – he said: 'She’s been away so long – there’s a lot of fear there because she’s been betrayed so many times and she hasn’t really been in the public eye officially for so long. We’ve been holding her hand through the whole process, reassuring her that everything’s gonna be alright.
‘I’m so excited to be able to do it with her because if it is a big hit, and I think it may be, it will give her so much more confidence than she’s got already and she will realise that people actually love her and care for her and want her to be happy.
'That’s all anybody in their right mind would want after she went through such a traumatic time.'
The singer yesterday tweeted her joy at releasing new music, saying: 'Okie dokie … my first song in 6 years!!!! It’s pretty damn cool that I’m singing with one of the most classic men of our time'
Hold Me Closer is out now.