Spanish singer Blas Cantó joins Kelly Clarkson on 'pandemic anthem'

Clarkson, 37 – best known for her hit What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger, and for her 2003 number The Trouble With Love Is, which was used on the soundtrack to cult British comedy film Love, Actually – released her latest record just four days ago, on Thursday.

As well as the original in English, she has recorded duets in five different languages with native artists.

In addition to the Spanish-English version, the other four feature English with French, German, Arabic and Hebrew.

Blas Cantó, 28 – born in Ricote, Murcia, but who grew up in the nearby town of Molina de Segura – was due to represent Spain at the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest, but will now have to wait until May 2021 as the show has been called off due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

He became one of the vocalists for the five-part boy-band Auryn in 2010, whose members are all Spanish and based in Spain but whose records were almost entirely in English – including the iconic 2013 hit Heartbreaker, which dominated the radio chart shows for months.

In addition to Cantó, artists on the different versions of I Dare You are France's Isabelle Geffroy – better known by her stage name Zaz and for her eponymous 2010 album; Moroccan Faouzia, who has lived in the Québéc town of Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, Canada, since she was five, and will be duetting in Arabic; German electro-pop duo Glasperlenspiel, made up of Carolin Niemczyk and Daniel Grunenberg; and 42-year-old pop-soul singer and actress Maya Bouskilla, from Israel, who will sing it in Hebrew.

“Now available – Te Reto a Amar ['I Dare You to Love'], my new song with Kelly Clarkson,” Blas Cantó wrote on Twitter.

“And you – who do you dare to love?” - In the sense of 'issuing a dare' to someone and 'challenging them to love'.

The idea of the single and its multiple languages is to 'transmit the love that we all need right now during this difficult time', Cantó says, and to 'spread hope and optimism during the Coronavirus crisis'.

“This is a song about love in all its forms, from the point of view of adversity, choosing love instead of fear,” says Kelly Clarkson.

“I'm very proud of the singers from all over the world who have sung with me on this track.”

Fans of Texan-born Clarkson have started calling the single 'the world pandemic anthem'.

Photographs: Kelly Clarkson (Marc Piscotty/Wikimedia Commons); Blas Cantó (Amazon)