Ellie Goulding has teamed up with Diplo and Rae Sremmurd‘s Swae Lee on her new single, ‘Close To Me’.
The track is Goulding and Diplo’s second collaboration, following their work together on Major Lazer‘s ‘Powerful’. That song featured on the group’s 2015 album ‘Peace Is The Mission‘.
‘Close To Me’ marks the singer’s first original music since her contribution to the Bridget Jones’s Baby soundtrack, ‘Still Falling For You’, in 2016. Since then she has also released a collaboration with Kygo called ‘First Time’ and covers of Christmas carol ‘O Holy Night’ and Don McLean’s ‘Vincent’. Listen to ‘Close To Me’ below.
Speaking to Annie Mac on BBC Radio 1, Goulding said she wrote the song in LA six months ago. “We always wanted to work together on something but we couldn’t figure out what,” she said of Diplo. “This was the perfect track for him and he was really in love with it. So we got together on it and then we tried to find, basically, the perfect kind of companion with me for it.
Thank you @AnnieMac for making 'Close to Me' with @diplo featuring @goSwaeLee your Hottest Record in the World. out everywhere now! ?? Listen back on @BBCR1 https://t.co/jDEn6orBXK pic.twitter.com/SkizMWPM43
— Ellie Goulding (@elliegoulding) October 24, 2018
“And then Swae Lee popped up, and as soon as I heard him do his verse on it, I was like, ‘Yeah, this is perfect.'”
Earlier this year, Goulding hit back at then-Grammys CEO Neil Portnow’s comments that women needed to “step up” if they wanted to win more awards. The singer used her acceptance speech at the BRIT Awards to respond to his comments.
She later admitted she had been asked to address Portnow’s much-criticised words. “I didn’t want to say no, because I thought it was something that should have been said by someone,” she explained. “I was like ‘if no one else is going to say it, then I’ll say it.'”