After being freed from her 13-year conservatorship, it was unclear if Spears would ever perform again. Now she’s back with a new duet with John – and calling the shots in the studio
• Read the Guardian review of Hold Me Closer
This July, in a small basement studio in Beverly Hills surrounded by candles, coloured lights, keyboards and her new husband, Britney Spears rebooted her music career. Six years since her last album, and nine months since she was freed from the conservatorship that had ruled her life for 13 years, she was at the home studio of producer Andrew Watt, recording her parts for Hold Me Closer – a duet with Elton John which mashes up perhaps his defining hit, 1971’s Tiny Dancer, with his 1992 song The One (and a dash of 1976’s Don’t Go Breaking My Heart).
Spears arrived with her vocals warmed up and determined ideas about her contribution, and nailed the performance in less than two hours. “She sang fantastically,” says John from his house in the south of France. “Everyone was saying they don’t think she can sing any more. But I said, she was brilliant when she started so I think she can. And she did it, and I was so thrilled with what she did.”
