‘Hold Me Closer’: Britney Spears makes musical comeback with Elton John duet

Britney Spears has returned to music for the first time since being freed from a legal conservatorship that allowed her father, Jamie Spears, complete legal control over her finances and day-to-day existence from its signing in 2008. On Friday, the 40-year-old pop star released a duet with British singer Elton John called Hold Me Closer. The song that mixes the chorus and verses of Elton John’s classics hits Tiny Dancer and The One. It is Spears’ first new material since her 2016 album Glory.

“It’s pretty damn cool that I’m singing with one of the most classic men of our time … Elton John!!!! I’m kinda overwhelmed… it’s a big deal to me,” said Spears in a message on Twitter.

Spears was one of the biggest pop stars of the late 1990s and 2000s, releasing chart-toppers such as as Womanizer, Toxic and Oops!.. .I did it again. But, in recent years, her personal life has attracted more attention than her music. In January 2008, she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital after succumbing to media pressure. Spears left the facility that same year, but her father, James Spears, was appointed as her conservator, a role that have him control of her daughter’s finances and many other aspects of her private life.

During the 13-year-long conservatorship, Spears recorded four albums, did four world tours and participated in 248 shows in Las Vegas. The singer was finally released from the conservatorship on November 13, 2021, which she described as “the best day of her life.”