After spending the last week teasing the release, Rina Sawayama has now returned to share a very special collaboration.
The new rendition of her 2020 single 'Chosen Family' sees her team up with the iconic Elton John for the release, and was premiered on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 radio show last night (14th April).
Speaking about the collaboration, Rina said, “It was such a joy and honour to rework Chosen Family with the legendary Elton John. The song means so much to both of us, and recording it together was such a special experience I will never forget. I got shivers when I heard his voice through the monitor and became emotional when he added the piano parts. Elton has been such a huge supporter from before the album, and when we finally met to record this song we clicked from the get go. I hope people can hear the magic!”
While Elton added, "When I was sent Comme Des Garçons for my Rocket Hour show, I stopped in my tracks and thought “who is this?” It just blew me away from the first listen. We've since become friends, and it's such a huge honour and a genuine thrill to be asked to duet with Rina. She is just an extraordinary talent. Rina doesn’t just represent the cross-cultural mix of inspiration from which the best music always thrives, but a generation who have grown up with the internet and the entire history of music at their fingertips and mix together whatever they please with real love and understanding, unconstrained by old ideas of genre or boundary. To my mind, she’s the brightest embodiment of this: a brilliant, confidence-oozing, endlessly fascinating songwriter and performer."
Have a listen to their new version of 'Chosen Family' in the player below.