Pet Shop Boys have denied reports they “pulled out” of plans to hit the stage at Tuesday’s BRIT Awards with Elton John and Olly Alexander for a performance of their classic hit It’s a Sin.
According to The Sun, the three acts had been due to perform the track together, which has been released to raise funds for Elton’s AIDS Foundation, but the pop duo exited plans due to “creative differences”.
Sources from the awards show explained: “The concept of all three acts coming together was really exciting but in the end it didn’t work out.
“It seemed like they had different visions of what the performance should look like,” they shared. “Some wanted it to be a celebration of gayness, others thought it’d be better to make it more general. Let’s just call it creative differences.”
However, in a statement across their social media channels, Pet Shop Boys hit back at the claims, calling the report is “not true”.
“It is true that Pet Shop Boys had been asked to be part of the performance of their song ‘It’s a sin’ with Years & Years and Elton John and that they co-produced the new version for the BRIT Awards with their long-term producer Stuart Price,” they posted.
“It is not true that ‘creative differences’ led to them not appearing. The staging and casting ideas were approved by PSB along with Olly Alexander and Elton John.
“The non-appearance of PSB was ultimately due to a contractual issue that proved unresolvable.”
Debuting the track, Years & Years star Olly donned a crop top while lying atop Elton’s piano, before the tune went full disco in the vein of the original ’80s recording – at which point Elton took over lead vocals.
And Olly has since revealed it was Elton who called him to take part in the performance, telling the Daily Star: “Elton phoned me and asked if I would be up for doing a special performance for the BRITs.
“When I was on stage with him, I thought back to being a little kid watching him at the BRIT Awards and I thought, ‘I just can’t believe I’m doing this.'”
It’s a Sin is available to stream and download now, with proceeds benefitting Elton’s AIDs Foundation.
