Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears hints at upcoming Elton John and Madonna duet

Scissor Sisters‘ Jake Shears has hinted that a duet between Madonna and Elton John might be on the way.

• READ MORE: The NME Big Read – Elton John: “I’m not interested in the past – not even Elton John’s past” 

It comes after the musical icons “finally buried the hatchet” over their long-running feud earlier this month, after Madonna confronted John backstage during his recent appearance on Saturday Night Live.

Now, Shears – who worked with John on the Broadway musical Tammy Faye – has suggested that a recent song John wrote for the ‘Like a Virgin’ superstar might be a duet.

Speaking to Nick Grimshaw on the Sidetracked podcast, Shears said: “All I’m going to say is that the things up Elton’s sleeves are incredible. He’s got a fantastic sleeve that he might have things up.”

The pair’s reconciliation follows a public spat which stretches back to the early noughties when John criticised Madonna’s title track to James Bond’s Die Another Die branding it “the worst Bond tune ever”.

He then accused her of “lip-synching” during her live shows in 2007 and reignited the feud ahead of Madonna’s show 2012 Super Bowl Half Time show, when he told the singer to “lip-synch good”.

That same year he labelled her “a fairground stripper” and proclaimed that “her career is over” and he criticised her for calling Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ “reductive”. That same year, Madonna won Best Original Song at the Golden Globes and she hit back at John in her acceptance speech. She said: “[John is] brilliant, and I adore him, so he’ll win another award. I don’t feel bad.”

Announcing an end to the feud, Madonna wrote on Instagram: “Over the decades it hurt me to know that someone I admired so much shared his dislike of me publicly as an artist. I didn’t understand it. I was told Elton John was the musical guest on SNL and I decided to go.

“I needed to go backstage and confront him. When I met him, the first thing out of his mouth was, “Forgive Me” and the wall between us fell down.”

She went on to say that “within minutes. We were hugging”. Madonna added: “Then he told me had written a song for me and he wanted to collaborate. It was like everything came full circle!!”

John then responded in a comment: “Thank you for coming to see me at SNL,” he began. “And thank you for forgiving me and my big mouth. I’m not proud of what I said.

“Particularly when I think about all the groundbreaking work you have done as an artist – paving the way for an entire generation of female artists to succeed and be true to themselves. You were also one of the very first people to rise up against HIV/AIDS in the 80’s, bringing love and compassion to so many who desperately needed it.”

John continued: “I’m grateful we can move forward. I’m increasingly distressed by all the divisiveness in our world at the moment. Both you and I have wholeheartedly been accepted and embraced by communities who are under threat around the world. By pulling together, I’m hopeful that we can make great things happen for those who really need support. And have a lot of fun doing it.”

In other John news, he’s teamed up with Brandi Carlile to launch a campaign to try to offset the Trump administration’s cuts to HIV/AIDS funding.

The duo, who released their collaborative album ‘Who Believes In Angels’ earlier this month, are now working together on a joint venture between the Elton John AIDS Foundation and Carlile’s Looking Out Foundation.

As for Madonna, the pop icon recently announced the upcoming re-release of her classic 1994 album ‘Bedtime Stories’, and spoke out against Donald Trump referring to himself as a “king”.

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