Elton John collaborated with Britney Spears to help boost her confidence after ‘horrible’ 20 years

‘I’m so happy because it’s got her back to what she’s famous for – being a singer and an artist,’ musician said

Elton John has said that he collaborated with Britney Spears in hope of building “momentum” for her to return to music.

Last month, Spears released her first single in six years, a cover of John’s 1971 single “Tiny Dancer” called “Hold Me Closer”. The track is currently at No 3 position in the UK charts.

Appearing on Heart Breakfast on Tuesday (6 September), John told Amanda Holden and Jamie Theakston that he hoped the success of the single would be the catalyst for Spears to release more music.

Holden asked John if it had been his husband David Furnish’s idea to collaborate with Spears to “boost her confidence”.

“Yes, absolutely,” John replied. “He said, ‘Listen, why don’t we do it with Britney?’ And I went, ‘Wow, that’s a bit out of left field, but what a brilliant idea.’”

He continued: “’A) I would love to help her and get her back to recording. B) I know she can sing, you’ve only got to look at her documentary to see how great a singer she was. She hasn’t had anything out since 2016, so I said, ‘Yeah, that’s a brilliant idea.’”

John explained that Spears had recorded “five or six” different versions of “Hold Me Closer”, but that this was “the version that she wanted to put out”.

“I’m so happy because it’s got her back to what she’s famous for – being a singer and an artist,” he continued.

“She’s had such a horrible time in the last 20 odd years with various things that have gone off with her and she’s been treated so badly. I thought this will give her a bit of a fillip, as it were… Hopefully it will be the momentum that’s necessary to get her to record again.”

“Hold Me Closer” is Spears’ first single in six years and the first new music released since her controversial conservatorship ended.