Alas, in just a few hours, Britney Spears is releasing her Elton John collaboration “Hold Me Closer,” which represents the start of her post-conservatorship music comeback. The song is just the latest high-profile collaboration for Spears, as she has had a healthy handful of them throughout her career.
Spears’ first major team-up was with Madonna on 2003’s “Me Against The Music,” which ended up being a top-40 single in the US. It took a little while after that for Spears to release another collaborative single with 2011’s “Till The World Ends,” a remix of which featured Nicki Minaj and Kesha. That same year, Spears hopped on a remix of Rihanna’s No. 1 single “S&M.”
In 2012, she and Will.i.am came together on the latter’s “Scream & Shout,” which was top-three in the US. A couple years later, Will.i.am returned the favor and featured on Spears’ “It Should Be Easy.” Also in 2014, the T.I. collab “Tik Tik Boom” was released as a promotional single. The rest of Spears’ singles that decade were collaborative: “Pretty Girls” with Iggy Azalea, “Tom’s Diner” with Giorgio Moroder, “Make Me” featuring G-Eazy, and “Slumber Party” featuring Tinashe (which actually could have featured Charli XCX instead).
There are some collaborative non-singles of note as well. Will.i.am featured on Femme Fatale cut “Big Fat Bass,” Miley Cyrus’ 2013 album Bangerz included the Spears collab “SMS (Bangerz),” and on Spears’ 2013 album Britney Jean, sister Jamie Lynn Spears features on “Chillin’ With You” (a collab that probably wouldn’t happen today).
Behind the scenes, artists who have gotten songwriting and/or production credits on Spears’ albums include Max Martin, Shania Twain (on “Don’t Let Me Be The Last To Know”), The Neptunes (Pharrell and Chad Hugo), Dido (on “I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman”), Justin Timberlake (on “What It’s Like To Be Me”), Moby (on “Early Mornin'”), Keri Hilson, Benny Blanco, Sia, David Guetta, Katy Perry (on “Passenger”), Julia Michaels, and Cashmere Cat, among others.
Check out a few of the aforementioned collabs above and below.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. .
