Taylor Swift and Zayn shocked their fans on Thursday night when they dropped a brand new track that features a great hook almost certainly written by Tay, and features Zayn’s soon to be signature falsetto vocals. The song, called “Live Forever” is the exact type of soaring duet you might expect from a film with Fifty Shades Darker‘s sensibilities, with impressive vocals that still have some smokiness and mystery. You can buy the full song now on iTunes, or listen to the lengthy clip Taylor tweeted out to her 80 million-plus followers on Twitter to announce the song’s surprise release.
https://twitter.com/taylorswift13/status/807079149810700288
While the release might not have been a surprise, the pairing of these two artists isn’t as shocking. Taylor famously dated (“dated”) and subsequently wrote an entire album about Zayn’s former One Direction band mate Harry Styles. However, Zayn was unceremoniously booted…er, “voluntarily left”…the world famous boy band and launched his solo career in advance of Harry, Niall, and the rest of the boys. He also jumped right into the celebrity dating pool and is currently in an on again/off again relationship with Gigi Hadid, the jet setting model and current “It” girl of the moment who is best friends with…Taylor Swift! So there’s no guessing as to how this collaboration came to be.
The talent behind the scenes includes expected collaborators as well, such as singer/songwriter Jack Antonoff — who worked closely with Taylor on her hugely successful 1989 album. The song is already rocketing up the charts and is #1 in more than 10 countries, which again is not surprising because these are two artists who have intense and loyal fanbases that are known to mobilize quickly and efficiently at any moment. It’s a good bet that Fifty Shades Darker is hoping to latch on to the same fervent fan base in order to boost their box office come Valentine’s Day.
