Britney Spears and Elton John‘s new collaboration, “Hold Me Closer,” is already proving to be one of the buzziest tracks of the year. Though it was her first new music work in six years, Spears evidently went into this collaboration without any inhibitions.
Andrew Watt, who produced the rework of John’s 50-year-old hit, “Tiny Dancer,” revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone that Spears managed to get the song exactly the way she wanted it.
“She came up with her own ideas,” Watt said. “She wanted to speed up the record a little bit, and we did that. She’s such a pro with dance music and understanding that kind of stuff and what works for her.”
He continued, “She knew exactly what she wanted to do. she had spent tons of time with the record; she knew all the lyrics; it was, like, her thing. And it was really awesome to witness and see her be so powerful and crush it. She sounds incredible on the record, and she was involved all the way up until the final mix.”
On the heels of the collaboration, Spears shared a 22-minute voice recording on YouTube this past weekend, which has since been deleted.
While fans were waiting for Spears to put out new music as she’s been under a conservatorship, Spears revealed that the #FreeBritney movement was confusing to her, at first.
“The whole thing that made it really confusing for me is these people were on the street were fighting for me,” Spears said, “but my sister and my mother aren’t doing anything. To me, it was like they secretly, honestly liked me being the bad one, like I was messed up, and they kind of just liked it that way. Otherwise, why weren’t they outside my doorstep saying, ‘Baby girl, get in the car, let’s go.’ I think that’s the main thing that hurt me. I couldn’t process how my family went along with it for so long.”
