Sir Elton John recalls being worried about Britney Spears before song release

Elton John talked about working on his latest duet with Britney Spears titled Hold Me Closer as he recalled being worried for her before the song’s recording.

In an interview with Apple Music 1’s Zane Lowe, the legendary singer said he knew the Toxic singer could sing but he was “worried” she would be “nervous” to record first track after years.

“I think she was very reticent at first, because I think she was nervous, but she went in the studio in Los Angeles,” he spoke of the singer. “I was in England, she went in the studio with Andrew Watt, who’s my friend and producer.”

The Rocket Man hit-maker said that Spears got back into the groove of things “so well and so easily,” while adding, “And I’m sure a lot of people thought, ‘Well can she still sing?’ Well, I knew for a start that she could sing.”

“If you go back and look at the old footage, she was the biggest artist in the world and she could sing, she could dance, she could do everything. So I wasn’t worried about that. What I was worried about is if she would be so nervous because she hadn’t done it for a while, but she came through it with flying colors,” he revealed.

“She hasn’t been in the charts for a long time, but she’s warming up, she’s defrosting, as I say, and she’s having a great time,” John continued. “The more the record does, the more it will help her heal. And she will realize that people are so fond of her and that they have missed her. They feel for her.”

“It seems to have gone off to a really good start,” he said of their collaboration, which jumped to top spot on iTune in less than 24 hours of its release in 40 countries.

“And I’m really happy for Britney, especially because having her on this record is such a gas, for start, but this is someone who has been through hell, who needed some love in her life, a lot of love from a lot of people and she’s getting it.

Before concluding, John added, “And it couldn’t go to a better cause than her at the moment.” 

The hotly released track, which is a remix of John’s 1971 hit Tiny Dancer, marks Spears’ comeback to the world of music since her conservatorship was terminated in 2021.