Ariana Grande recently celebrated the 10-year anniversary of her sophomore album, My Everything, by offering a 10th anniversary edition, plus vinyl versions of the album’s singles. One of them was “Break Free,” a collaboration with Zedd that hit #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Zedd tells ABC Audio he never thought the song would find its way to Ariana.
Zedd says he created the “Break Free” track and then asked his pal, super-producer Max Martin, to write some lyrics. “We were both like, ‘Awesome, we love this song. One day something will happen with it,'” he recalls.
That day came when Max called Zedd and said he was in the studio with Ariana Grande — what did he think about her recording “Break Free”? Zedd thought it was an “amazing” idea, but there was one problem.
“She recorded the vocals and I had a really hard time understanding the words,” Zedd says. “I’m German, so I’m not the best at, like, giving advice on English. [But] I was like, ‘I have a really hard time making out what the words are saying.'”
“So she went back and rerecorded everything from scratch, which I feel like most artists wouldn’t do,” he continues. “So the fact that she wanted this to be perfect and went back and redid the entire thing speaks for her work ethic and how much of a perfectionist she is.”
And Zedd gives Ari credit for the song’s continued popularity, 10 years later.
“Nobody really expected this to become this anthem. I mean, I still play the song live … it’s just become one of the biggest songs in my sets. And [I’m] incredibly grateful because it certainly wouldn’t have happened without her … she really drove that thing home.”
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