The clip was directed by Xavier Dolan & choreographed by Damien Jalet
Elton John and Brandi Carlile have released the music video for their latest single “Swing For The Fences.” Directed by acclaimed director Xavier Dolan, working alongside celebrated choreographer Damien Jalet (Emilia Pérez, Anima, Suspiria), the video is a dynamic and emotional exploration of sensuality and liberation.
Starring William Darby and Abdalla Amour, the video follows a young man home alone, dancing frantically, galvanized by the song and its energy. As he continues his liberating improvisation, the dance becomes more personal and visceral, before slowing as he is joined by a lover, ending in an intimate kiss.
“Swing For The Fences” is a life-affirming, joyous track and is the latest offering from Elton and Brandi’s recently announced collaborative studio album Who Believes In Angels? set for release on April 4th via Interscope Records.
The song is both a euphoric slice of rock ‘n’ roll, and a defiant and proud anthem. Speaking on the track, Brandi says, “Swing For The Fences’ was a little gem I took into the studio with me: I’m a gay woman, Elton’s a gay man and we both have families, and our dreams have come true. I was thinking, wouldn’t it be cool to write an anthem for young gay kids out there that calls them into a bigger, more elegant, more fabulous life. Just like ‘go, go! don’t let anything hold you back!’.”
Elton adds, “When we recorded ‘Swing For The Fences’, it was the moment that crystallised where the album was going. It was hard to get to that point, but we knew we had to rise to the occasion and we all just felt this massive sense of joy and euphoria. After our initial difficulties, all the uncertainties started to dissipate when this song came together. It just sounded great.”
The concept for Who Believes In Angels? was devised by close friends and regular collaborators Elton John, eleven-time Grammy-winning US superstar Brandi Carlile and multiple Grammy Award-winning producer and songwriter Andrew Watt. They set out to create a genuinely collaborative studio album between Elton and Brandi. The album would mix Elton-led songs and Brandi-led songs, with long-term collaborator Bernie Taupin and Brandi both contributing lyrics and producer and co-writer Andrew Watt acting as the producer, mediator and creative conduit. Entering Los Angeles’ Sunset Sound Studios in October 2023 with a completely blank slate, they pushed each other out of their comfort zones to write and record an album completely from scratch in just 20 days. They would be backed by a world-class band of musicians comprising of Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Pino Palladino (Nine Inch Nails, Gary Numan and David Gilmour) and Josh Klinghoffer (Pearl Jam, Beck).
This is the first time that Elton has allowed cameras to film his writing and recording sessions. Static cameras positioned around the studio captured thousands of hours of raw footage and ultimately documented the entire creative process – breakdowns, breakthroughs, tears, torn-up lyric sheets and all. The candid footage offers fans an unprecedented, searingly honest insight into the emotionally turbulent creative process for Elton, Brandi and the rest of the team.
The ten-part series capturing the making of Who Believes in Angels? Stories On The Edge of Creation is executive produced by Michael D. Ratner, Scott Ratner, Arlen Konopaki, Miranda Sherman and co-executive produced by Kfir Goldberg and Raquel Dominguez for OBB Pictures, the film and television division of OBB Media. Also serving as executive producers on the series are David Furnish, Catherine Carlile and Rachael Paley, and Rafael Britto as a supervising producer.
The results of this creative friction are stunning, and the kaleidoscopic scope of Who Believes In Angels? draws comparisons with some of Elton’s very finest works. Ballads co-exist with raw rock and roll, pop songs and country-hued Americana rub shoulders with synth-heavy psychedelia. It’s an album as unexpected as it is triumphant. Elton sounds utterly revitalized. Brandi sounds like a singer-songwriter at the absolute top of her game, her voice melding with Elton’s like a hand in a glove. The resulting songs somehow manage to be unequivocally the work of Elton John and Brandi Carlile, while sounding unlike any album either have made before.
“This record was one of the toughest I’ve ever made, but it was also one of the greatest musical experiences of my life,” John says. “It has given me a place where I know I can move forward. Who Believes In Angels? feels like going into another era and I’m pushing the door open to come into the future. I have everything I’ve done behind me and it’s been brilliant, amazing. But this is the new start for me. As far as I’m concerned, this is the start of my career Mark two.”
“I’m still reeling from the fact that I got to do it,” Carlile adds. “I think all ships rise with Elton John’s standards for songwriting, and it was an incredibly challenging and inspiring environment to work in, everybody throwing in ideas, everybody listening to everybody else’s ideas. It felt like a family. The world is a wild place to live in right now. It’s hard to find peace and triumph. It’s a radical act to seek out joyful and euphoric happenings. And that is what this album represents to me.”
Carlile penned the lyrics and John the theme to the title track, before Watt joined them to bring it all together. From the opening piano chords, it’s unmistakably a slice of classic Elton John, that at once manages to nod to past glories whilst sounding thoroughly modern and forward-looking. Brandi’s soaring vocals meld exquisitely with Elton’s on a towering synth-charged chorus, as hard-hitting as many of his best-loved classics.
Who Believes In Angels? also features the 2025 Oscar-nominated song “Never Too Late,” created especially for the Disney+ documentary of the same name and unveiled last year. A beautiful, reflective and ultimately uplifting story of finding happiness and redemption in love and family, “Never Too Late” is the truly fitting finale to the documentary that plays out over the credits of the documentary of the same name. The documentary follows John as he looks back on his life and the astonishing early days of his 50-year career in an emotionally charged, intimate and inspiring full-circle journey. Directed by R.J. Cutler and David Furnish the documentary is available to watch on Disney+ now.
