Britney Spears' New Elton John Collab Has Leaked

The much-hyped collaboration between Britney Spears and Elton John has leaked online. The collaborative work Hold Me Closer is intended to be Britney's comeback single. 

The song is a mashup of Elton's big hit Tiny Dancer and a selection of Elton's other songs, including his 1992 single The One. The leaked version is apparently not the finished one, and fans have been left furious that Britney was robbed of the chance to release the single on her own terms. 

The 'Princess of Pop' is reportedly keen to tweak the lyrics and sing a new verse for the song, to ease concerns that she still had about the song.

Britney fans are urging people not to seek out the leak and respect the wishes of Britney. In response to a now-deleted tweet containing a snippet of the leak, fans commented "This is not ok. She’s working so hard",  while another fan wrote "Why leak it if she’s not happy with it?” and several begged for people to "delete it".

Elton took to social media to officially announce the track, with an apparent release date of August 26th. This date has yet to be confirmed by Universal Music Group. 

Initial responses from fans who heard the track have been positive, one fan writing "She sounds so good" and several others expressing their excitement at having heard the leaked track. 

When the duet officially arrives, it will be Spears first freshly recorded output in six years and would mark her return to music following the end of a controversial 14-year conservatorship in 2021. Spears' last official single was 2016's Slumber Party. 

Hold Me Closer is due to be released later this month. PageSix reported that insiders revealed to them that the Tiny Dancer duet was Elton's idea and that hitmaking producer Andrew Watt worked on the recording. 

“This was Elton’s idea, and Britney is a huge fan. They have recorded a remix of ‘Tiny Dancer’ as a full duet — and it is incredible,” "Britney was in the studio in Beverly Hills last week with Elton for the super-secret recording session overseen by uber-producer Andrew Watt.”