Elton John and Britney Spears have revealed that their collaborative single, “Hold Me Closer” will be released on August 26. The duo also shared cover art, which features childhood photos of each artist.
Elton and Britney first began teasing the track on August 8. The track is available for pre-order. Upon the initial announcement, John revealed little else about the track, but the initial Tweet was accompanied by cover art with the song title in simple script and two emojis—a rose and a rocket ship—beneath it.
It’s an exciting time for Elton, who recently announced that he will play five special “encore” concerts in Australia and New Zealand next year, extending his ongoing multi-year “Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour,” which will mark his final run of shows.
John will kick off the new round of dates in Newcastle, New South Wales on January 10, 2023 before heading to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. He will then head to New Zealand to perform in Christchurch on January 24. He will then fly to Auckland to perform two rescheduled shows on January 27 and 28.
“In 2020 I promised that when I came back to finish my interrupted farewell, I’d perform some encore shows,” the singer-songwriter said when announcing the new dates. “I love your part of the world dearly and cannot wait to share these concerts with you!”
John recently began the UK leg of his ‘Farewell Yellow Brick Road’ tour in Norwich on June 15. Having first announced the first UK dates for his final ever run of shows in 2018, he had been set to play a run of rescheduled UK headline dates between October and December 2021.
However, he was forced to postpone those gigs to 2023 after sustaining a hip injury from an “awkward” fall. John will have played over 300 shows across five continents by the time the tour concludes in July next year.
