Not every collaboration ends on a sweet note, and that’s the case for Martin Garrix and Ellie Goulding.
Martin Garrix and David Guetta teamed up for the second time for a collaboration with Goulding. During the summer at Garrix’s set at Tomorrowland 2017 the pair gave festival attendees a live preview of So Far Away before Goulding had heard the finalized version. Fans and the media fell head over heels for the track and Billboard lauded it as “a beautiful future-pop ballad.”
Unfortunately, Goulding’s label wasn’t impressed with the live preview and they made the decision to pull her out of the collab. Afterward, Garrix and Guetta replaced Goulding with Romy Dya, the female singer that had originally appeared on the demo. Dya is joined by male singer Jamie Scott. At that time, Goulding’s exit from the track was not made public.
And so, when David Guetta shared a preview of So Far Away on Twitter last week, fans were abuzz with questions. After all, the preview was cleaned of Goulding’s vocals.
it’s not w Ellie anymore
— MARTIN GARRIX (@MartinGarrix) November 21, 2017
Garrix’s response of “she didn’t want to release it” prompted Goulding to speak up. They shared completely different stories about what happened to the collaboration.
“She didn’t want to release it” is completely untrue and unfair. I love the song!
— Ellie Goulding (@elliegoulding) November 23, 2017
Garrix has been known for his disagreements with labels. In 2015, he left Spinnin’ Records and MusicAllStars Management, citing a disagreement regarding the ownership rights to his music. Shortly thereafter the label released a statement, and it was revealed that they had confirmed transfer of ownership of his music. Furthermore, they had tried renegotiating his agreement to make it work in his favor. The following year, Garrix founded his own label called STMPD RCRDS.
They played the song at a festival before I had even heard the finished product which I was cool with but it didn’t go down well with my management or label. I have always loved the song very much.
— Ellie Goulding (@elliegoulding) November 23, 2017
So Far Away was officially released last Friday, and it’s already receiving some rave reviews. It’s pretty much guaranteed that we’ll hear this song a lot during the 2018 festival season.
What do you think about the whole ordeal?
Important things happen in Pacific Northwest nightlife, and DMNW will send you alerts!