Britney, Iggy team up for 'Pretty' duet
With the Princess of Pop by her side, Iggy Azalea is making a second run at the song-of-summer throne.
Almost a year after her ubiquitous Fancy with Charli XCX began its seven-week reign atop the Billboard Hot 100 — Azalea's first in a string of female-fueled hits with Ariana Grande, Rita Ora, Jennifer Lopez and Jennifer Hudson — the Aussie rapper joins Britney Spears for the new single Pretty Girls, out May 4.
"You definitely need a partner to sing (it with)," says Azalea, describing the summery, girl-power duet they'll perform live on the Billboard Music Awards May 17. "It's just a lot of fun. It's a classic, girly (song) you want to scream to each other when you're getting ready."
The two initially connected last summer after Spears saw the Fancy video, which pays homage to 1995 comedy Clueless.
"I had called my manager (Larry Rudolph) and had some ideas about doing a Valley girl-type video," Spears says. "It was really kind of funny, because I had just watched Clueless on TV, and was like, 'It would be so fun to do something like that.' Then I saw Iggy's video, and I thought, 'Oh my God, to work with her would be heaven sent.' "
They began ping-ponging variations of the song, produced by The Invisible Men, between camps — at times featuring more of one artist than the other, before landing on a back-and-forth that played to each other's strengths. Although the collaboration was finished last fall, Azalea didn't meet the pop star in person until January, when she invited Spears to her house for lunch.
"We just talked about a bunch of girl stuff. She's a very down-to-earth girl and very, very sweet," Spears says. "She introduced me to her dog, we had wonderful salad and it was just fun girl time."
They also brainstormed the concept for the Pretty Girls video, out May 11 and co-directed by Azalea and Cameron Duddy (Bruno Mars' Gorilla).
"What Britney made clear to me is that she really wanted to do a video where she got to dress up and play a character," Azalea says. "That was really important to her." She just wanted to "let loose and not necessarily feel like she's playing Britney Spears."
They decided on a send-up of 1988 sci-fi comedy Earth Girls Are Easy,starring Geena Davis, who Azalea considers the "ultimate '80s pin-up, hot, cool type of girl."
In the video, which shot in Los Angeles earlier this month, "I do a makeover for her and we go to a club," Spears says. "The best part about it was just us coming together with the clothes and doing the '80s haircuts. We were all about being characters, so it was kind of funny for us. We weren't taking ourselves so seriously."
Does Spears also teach Azalea some of her iconic moves?
"I didn't dance! She wanted me to," Azalea laughs. "It would be kind of obnoxious for me to direct a video and give myself a dance break. Like, 'Here's the video! And I gave myself a dance scene!' "