Duran Duran and Chic legend Nile Rodgers go way, way back together. When they first started, Duran Duran described their own sound as Chic meets the Sex Pistols, and they scored their first #1 hit in the US when Rodgers remixed their 1984 single “The Reflex.” Rodgers and Duran Duran went on to work together many times over the years, most recently on the 2023 song “Black Moonlight.” Now, they’ve got another one.
Duran Duran have a few shows coming up at California’s BeachLife Festival and at the Fontainebleau in Vegas. Today, they share the new single “Free To Love,” a piece of sleek, retro dance-pop that evokes the band’s mid-’80s work to an uncanny, almost eerie degree. In a press release, Simon Le Bon describes the track as “disco for the 2020’s,” and Nick Rhodes talks about making music with Rodgers:
Every time we plug in and play with Nile, the electricity he generates could light up a whole city. We share a common belief that music is a force for good and something that brings positive energy into the world. “Free To Love” is our call to all the people out there who want peace, hope and understanding to prevail. An anthem for freedom, which is the most valuable currency we have, and something that should be truly and freely available for everyone, everywhere. “Free To Love” has a simple message: There is nothing more important than freedom and love. We certainly need a lot more of both in the world right now.
Rodgers agrees:
True love is free and unconditional. My love for Duran Duran, and what our music together has always been about, is the love we share for our song’s deepest meanings. Whatever chaos is going on outside, inside the studio we’re free to love our peace.
Music-video OG and Jonas Åkerlund auteur directed the very fun “Free To Love” clip. It’s set up to look exactly like a performance on Top Of The Pops back in the day, and it’s almost as exact as the In Living Color clip for Bruno Mars and Cardi B’s “Finesse.” These guys all look older than they did in the ’80s, but they don’t look much older. Check it out below.
