TAYLOR SWIFT
surprises in new song with Zayn
NEW YORK: Pop superstar Taylor Swift surprised fans on Friday by releasing her first new music in two years — an R&Btinged duet with former One Direction member Zayn Malik.
The track, “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever,” will be the theme song for “Fifty Shades Darker,” the sequel to “Fifty Shades of Grey” that will hit theatres in February.
The track, which immediately went to number one on the iTunes chart for most downloads, is Swift’s first song since her charttopping 2014 album “1989.”
In contrast to the perky Nordic pop of “1989,” the new song has a sensual R&B feel as Zayn, mostly in falsetto, and Swift alternate verses about romantic longing over a stripped-down beat.
The song is more in line with the recent style of Zayn, who has gone for a more sexualised image and R&B sound since leaving his squeaky clean British boy band last year. He has gone by just his first name as a solo artiste.
Swift’s collaboration with Zayn will be all the more intriguing to fans as she used to date his One Direction bandmate Harry Styles, who publicly fell out with Zayn.
Swift’s “1989” was one of the top-selling albums in recent years and won the Grammy in February for Album of the Year.
But Swift, who turns 27 next week, has been uncharacteristically quiet in recent months other than appearing in the celebrity press over her breakup with DJ Calvin Harris and her feud with rapper Kanye West over an unflattering song.
Although the pair collaborated on the new track, producer Jack Antonoff revealed that they didn’t actually record the duet together.
He tweeted: “i don’t wanna live forever came together very quickly. wrote it with taylor and sam dew and produced it at home mostly on paper sounds
“recorded taylor at my house. zayn sent parts from LA - we did it in a week basically. i’ve never had something come out that quick
“loved making this song with taylor sam and zayn (sic).”
In the preview, Swift sings: “Baby, baby, I feel crazy/Up all night, all night and every day/ Give me something, oh, but you say nothing/What is happening tonight?”
Zayn then belts out: “I don’t wanna live forever/’Cause I know I’ll be living in pain.”— AFP/ BANG Showbiz