Elton John surprises guests at Cannes restaurant with sneak peek performance of upcoming duet with Britney Spears
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Sir Elton John surprised some very lucky fans in France with a preview of his highly anticipated duet with Britney Spears.
On Tuesday, the pop superstar took the microphone at the French Riviera hotspot La Guérite — a celebrity-favored Mediterranean restaurant on Île Sainte-Marguerite, a small island about half a mile off the coast of Cannes — and delighted lunchtime diners with a sneak peek of his upcoming single, “Hold Me Closer,” which will be a collaboration with Spears.
In a video shared on his Instagram account, John — wearing a colorful matching shirt and shorts, as well as his trademark oversized sunglasses — is seen approaching the DJ booth, taking a microphone from the bar’s resident DJ, Christophe Szenberg, and telling the smartphone-holding crowd: “Britney Spears, Elton John, here we go.”
John, 75, then sang a few bars of the chorus of “Hold me Closer” — a new take on his 1971 classic “Tiny Dancer.”
The song, which officially comes out on Friday, will be Spears’ first release since she was released from a 13-year legal arrangement that placed her father as her conservator.
It will also be her first official new release in nearly six years.
The 40-year-old singer released her last album, “Glory,” in August 2016. The second and last single from that album — the reggae-pop “Slumber Party” — came out a few months later, on Nov. 26, when it reached the top of the U.S. Dance Club Songs charts.
That ended up being Spears’ last official new release, though her label, RCA Records, unveiled three previously unreleased tracks in late 2020 as the #FreeBritney movement started to gain momentum.
On Wednesday, the “Your Song” singer shared on Instagram another snippet of the John-Spears collaboration.
The 14-second clip features a colorful animation of the launch of a rocket — a clear reference to the “Rocketman” himself — leaving a trail of roses, a symbol often used by the “Gimme More” singer on social media.
