Together, David Guetta and Sia have been two of the key architects of the bridge between dance music and pop music.
The French producer and the Australian singer first struck sonic gold nearly a decade ago, with their monumental and era-defining smash “Titanium,” which fused Guetta’s electronic production with Sia’s indestructible pop vocals. Although Guetta originally offered the song to Katy Perry, this past July Perry revealed that she turned it down because the vocalist on the demo, Sia, was so damn good.
The world agreed, with the track becoming Sia’s highest charting song at the time and “Titanium” spending 13 weeks on the Hot 100, where it peaked at No. 7. The success of the song also opened the floodgates for a barrage of Guetta/Sia collabs, with the two artists working together on eight additional tracks and remixes since 2011.
The latest of those teamups is “Let’s Love.” Out last week, the song is a synthy, deeply ’80s-inspired homage to just loving the hell out of yourself and your nearest and dearest in the hopes of creating a nicer existence and more tolerable world. Created entirely online by Guetta and Sia, the song was made in tribute to the major cultural challenges that citizens of Earth are currently facing.
In celebration of the song here Guetta — in his own words — shares the behind the scenes stories of his many Sia collabs.
“Titanium” (2011)
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Funny thing is that the idea was to put another artist on the record, because Sia didn’t want to be in the spotlight any more. But what she delivered was just so amazing, I begged her to let me keep her voice. “Titanium” is now the biggest-selling record of my career, and it really changed my life — and Sia’s life too.
“Wild One Two” (2012)
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At the same time as “Titanium,” Sia featured on “Wild Ones” by Flo Rida. Nicky Romero and I created a rapper-less remix of the track for the re-release of the Nothing But The Beat 2.0 deluxe album.
“She Wolf (Falling To Pieces)” (2012)
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Less than a year after releasing “Titanium” and “Wild One Two,” we teamed up again and released “She Wolf.” Fun fact is that “She Wolf” was created under similar circumstances as “Titanium.” Sia originally wrote the lyrics for another artist, but I personally think Sia’s voice is just magic, and it wouldn’t be the same song with someone else, so we agreed on releasing it with her voice.
“The Whisperer” (2014)
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“The Whisperer” featured on my 2014 album, Listen. Fun fact is that Sia is the only artist to have tamed me into producing an electro-free ballad.
“Bang My Head” (2015)
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”Bang My Head” is the first of eight bonus tracks from my album Listen Again, which features all 14 original album tracks from Listen, as well as eight bonus tracks. I joined forces once again with Sia, and with Fetty Wap for the first time. I think Sia’s heartfelt vocal is the perfect contrast to Fetty Wap’s grittier tones, which makes the song very unique.
“Helium” (2018)
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Sia originally recorded the stirring piano ballad for the Fifty Shades Darker film in 2018 and we gave it a Guetta (and Afrojack) treatment, adding some electro beats to it.
“Flames” (2018)
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“Flames” was our seventh collaboration and the song became our third Top 10 together in May of 2018. I was thrilled that Sia agreed to reunite with me on “Flames,” considering how much of a superstar she’s become.
“Light Headed” (2018)
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“Light Headed” was taken from my seventh album, titled 7. This song is more underground house, so I released it under the name “Jack Back.”
“Let’s Love” (2020)
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“Let’s Love” was made 100 percent during confinement. We worked on Zoom together with Sia. Really, I felt like the world needed something to make the people to feel happy. There’s been so much depressing music lately. And on top of that, with everything that happened, I really wanted to inspire the world and just a make a feel good song. So, I called Sia, and we wrote this song online. It was first a ballad and then it became this incredible ’80s, crazy record. And I am super, super happy about it. I hope you love it as much as we do.
