Zedd Releases New Single With Grey and Hailee Steinfeld Titled “Starving”

Grey is a future bass producer who remixed Zedd’s “Beautiful Now” and has been on Zedd’s radar ever since.

Since the remix of “Beautiful Now,” Grey has remixed two more of Zedd’s works including “Papercut” and “True Colors.” Back in February, Zedd teamed up with Grey to release the remake of “The Candyman” for M&Ms.

For Zedd and Grey’s newest track, they have decided to team up with an Academy Award nominated actress and singer, Hailee Steinfeld. Hailee is a 19-year-old that is best known for her portrayal of Mattie Ross in the 2010 film True Grit. Hailee’s beautiful voice will create the perfect synergy when Zedd and Grey officially release their track “Starving” on July 15th.

This is a genuinely big deal for everyone involved. It’s Grey’s first-ever single as a lead artist after years of quietly remixing and co-producing behind the scenes for names like Zedd, and it’s a huge look for Hailee too, who’s been steadily building out a music career alongside her acting resume since her Pitch Perfect 2 days. Pairing her vocals with Zedd’s glossy, emotionally-charged production and Grey’s future bass sensibilities is exactly the kind of pop-meets-EDM crossover that has a real shot at radio, not just the festival circuit, rather than staying confined to the usual dance music bubble.

Zedd himself has been on an absolute tear collaborating with vocalists outside of the traditional EDM world, something he’s clearly leaning into more and more as his sound keeps evolving past his early progressive house roots. Teaming up with an actress-turned-singer like Hailee, rather than a typical topline vocalist, fits right into that pattern, and it’s exactly the kind of unexpected pairing that tends to produce something that stands out on the radio instead of blending into everything else in the genre.

We're getting closer…@greymusique @Zedd
7‒15‒16#STARVING pic.twitter.com/LS2briX8Vi

— Hailee Steinfeld (@HaileeSteinfeld) July 12, 2016

We're getting closer…@greymusique @Zedd
7•15•16#STARVING pic.twitter.com/LS2briX8Vi

— Hailee Steinfeld (@HaileeSteinfeld) July 12, 2016

Editor’s note: “Starving” went on to become a legitimate smash. It cracked the top 10 in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, and the UK, and hit #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 here in the US — Hailee’s highest-charting single at the time. It’s since gone multi-platinum in several countries, which is a pretty incredible outcome for what was technically Grey’s debut single. (For the record, some sources list the official release date as July 19th rather than July 15th — we’re leaving the original date above as originally published.)