Clean Bandit and Marina & the Diamonds premiere ‘Disconnect’ at Coachella
Imagine you are at Coachella enjoying the sun, good vibes, a beer (or two) and a great set of dance tracks with classical influences by the talented guys and girls of Clean Bandit. Then suddenly Grace announces Marina and the Diamonds will take the stage with them to premiere their new track called ‘Disconnect’. This is what happened to a few (quite a lot of them actually) lucky bastards at the festival this weekend. Here is what went down and what I think of this mighty collaboration.

Clean Bandit played a wonderful set full of hits during one of the biggest festivals of the world in California and they treated their audience to a huge premiere. The band recently announced that they worked with Marina Diamandis in the studio and at Coachella, they performed the song together for the first time. Marina came on stage in a yellow suit with a white top, looking stunning as ever. From Grace’s praising introduction to Marina and the little dance of joy she did afterwards, you could tell she was really proud of what was about to come. Same goes for Marina by the way, who danced enthusiastically to the first instrumental break of the track, receiving loud cheering from the crowd.

And what did it sound like? Well, incredible if you ask me! What else would you expect when two artists of that size and quality record a song together? The great thing about ‘Disconnect’ is that it literally has the best of both worlds. Marina’s distinctive vocals, a big pop chorus like we are used to from her and the emotional delivery of the lyrics like only she can. And then you get the beautiful strings and delicious dance vibe from Clean Bandit. A match made in heaven and definitely another hit with a collaboration for Clean Bandit.

Update: Over two years (!!) after the first live performance of ‘Disconnect’, Clean Bandit and Marina and the Diamonds finally released the studio version of the song. After fans of both acts kept asking about the tune, they decided to share the final product with the world. The production is smooth, sophisticated while Marina shines with an emotive vocal performance. For Clean Bandit this release happens in a period of great success. Their past two singles ‘Rockabye’ and ‘Symphony’ reached number one in the UK and smashed internationally. It does not seem like ‘Disconnect’ will be pushed as the next official single, but could well be a success if they would.