Britney Spears’ highly anticipated musical collaboration with Elton John ends next Friday, marking the first time she’s released new music since a judge ended her controversial conservatorship last year.
The single will be a new version of John’s 1972 classic “Tiny Dancer” titled “Hold Me Closer”, borrowing a lyric from the original song for the name.
John first confirmed the collaboration earlier this month and shared the release date on Friday in an Instagram post showing childhood photos of the duo.
It will be Spears’ first time releasing music since the 2016 release of her ninth studio album, “Glory,” which critics hailed as one of her best albums in years.
But until recently, Spears hinted on social media that she may be on her career for a while, saying her parents had “ruined the thrill” of the music industry for her. She suggested she might take a 10-year hiatus to upset her family and their role in the guardianship she’s pushed for years to end.
“Not making music anymore is my way of saying ‘fuck you’ in a way that it only benefits my family,” Spears wrote in a December 2021 Instagram post.
Fans were eager to see if Spears, whose life and career was tightly controlled during the 13-year tutelage led by her father, would reveal different vocal styles on her single with John. Last month, she posted a video to Instagram of her signature deeper, fuller voice reminiscent of some of her childhood performances.
“I haven’t shared my voice in a very long time, maybe too long, and here I am playing at home with a different version of ‘Baby’,” she wrote, referring to her first 1998 single “…Baby One More Time.”
At least one person heard the upcoming single and shared a very positive review.
“It’s going to be iconic,” Paris Hilton, one of Spears’ friends, said earlier this month. “I just heard it a few days ago in Ibiza and it’s…it’s crazy.”
