Sam Fender Toasts Mercury Prize Win With New Track Featuring Elton John: Listen

Following his Mercury Prize victory, Sam Fender has teamed up with Elton John for new track “Talk to You,” which appears on an upcoming deluxe version of his People Watching LP.

Fender has teased the song in recent weeks, and it will appear alongside a number of previously unheard tracks on the reissue, as well as his Olivia Dean collaboration of “Rein Me In.” The deluxe version of the album is slated for a Dec. 5 release.

People Watching was victorious for the U.K. and Ireland’s Mercury Prize, which was awarded Thursday night (Oct. 16) in his hometown of Newcastle, England. Fender performed at the ceremony with an emotional rendition of the title track of the LP. 

Speaking on Elton John’s Rocket Hour radio show airing Saturday (Oct. 18), Fender calls making the LP “a baptism of fire” and says that it took three years to bring together. He enlisted John for the piano part, as he needed a strong performer and because of the pair’s close relationship. “It was so much fun to come and play on one of your songs, because we’ve been friends for a long, long time,” John says on the show of playing on “Talk to You.”

Elsewhere in the interview, John challenges Fender to release the wealth of material he’s sitting on. “There’s nothing wrong with going straight in and doing another record,” John says. “That’s what we used to do all the time. … When one record was finished, the other one was coming out. That’s the way to do it. If you’ve got a lot of songs, just get them down.”

People Watching peaked at No. 1 on the U.K.’s Official Albums Chart upon release in February, to give Fender his third chart-topper. It also achieved the biggest opening week sales by a British solo act since Harry Styles Harry’s House (2022) with 110,000 copies. Fender headlined the London Stadium to 80,000 fans in June, and performed a number of huge outdoor shows across the country over the summer.

Listen to “Talk to You” with Elton John on piano below.