Intergenerational Duets

Maybe it all started right there, where the wild roses grow. That unpredictable Australian duet between the darkest incarnation of Nick Cave, the Cave of "Murder Ballads", and the sparkling dancing queen Kylie Minogue in "Where The Wild Roses Grow" had unknowingly opened up a breach. It marked the end of the gap - generational too - between two utterly distant worlds. Down came the fences between po-faced rockers and pop stars. The gothic blues of King Ink crossed paths with the angelic voice of the diva behind "Enjoy Yourself", in a dialogue as fascinating as it was unsettling between an innocent victim and her killer. A proper murder ballad, in short. Surprisingly, the two compatriots also ended up forging one of the strangest relationships in showbiz, a kind of bond between older brother and younger sister, two souls who, however different, remain tied to this day by an inexplicable strand of complicity. Beautiful and moving, in this respect, is the scene in the Cave documentary "20,000 Days On Earth" (2014), where the two are shown talking as he drives the car and she sits in the back seat.

Sure, fair enough, but back in 1996 the odd couple Nick & Kylie could only be counted among the decade's most successful curiosities, without much of a follow-up. In recent years, though, the intergenerational duet has become a trend, and above all the tool through which whichever pop star happens to be riding high at the moment tries to earn credibility with the "serious" rock crowd (preferably the alternative kind). In short, to quote Style Council, Walls come tumbling down.

The one who broke the ice was (as usual) David Byrne, whose typically sharp instinct led him to make an entire album with the young pop star of the moment, Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent. "Love This Giant" (2012) thus served as a paradigmatic example of intergenerational art rock. The project, however, brought together two openly experimental figures, both appreciated mainly by alternative rock audiences. Not such a surprising pairing, then, in line with others - Peter Gabriel-Kate Bush, Nick Cave-PJ Harvey, Mark Lanegan-Isobel Campbell - that over the years had brought together artists working in similar or adjacent territories. Later on, though, things went further still, producing tandems that seemed truly unimaginable.

Among the most active in this game, the shrewd Olivia Rodrigo, former Disney starlet and now the reigning queen of Gen Z mainstream pop. And who, if not David Byrne himself, could be the right man at the right moment? As it happens, Olivia brought the wave guru up on stage during her headlining set at New York's Governors Ball (June 8, 2025) for a surprising rendition of "Burning Down The House", the classic Talking Heads track taken from the 1983 album "Speaking In Tongues". A decidedly bold collaboration that brought two truly distant worlds into joyful collision, complete with dancing and an on-stage embrace.

Buoyed by the praise for that gamble, Rodrigo didn't stop there. Over the course of the same 2025, she also shared the stage with No Doubt, Jewel, Sheryl Crow and Stevie Nicks. Then she really went for shock value, enlisting a figure notoriously allergic to the mainstream spotlight like Robert Smith. This most unlikely of pairings came together on the Glastonbury 2025 stage, when, during her set, the American pop star introduced the Cure frontman as her "personal hero": "I can't contain my excitement for the next guest, he's maybe the best songwriter to ever come out of England", revealed the diva behind "Sour", before performing "Friday I'm In Love" and "Just Like Heaven" alongside the Crawley elf. Not satisfied with that, the indefatigable Olivia went on to release the two Cure songs she sang with the English frontman on her live album "Live in Glastonbury", with the proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders. Musically, the performances come across as a sincere tribute to the hero of the goth generation, even if the chosen songs don't exactly suit Rodrigo's vocal register.

Speaking of former Disney divas turned pop stars, no list would be complete without the equally fearless Miley Cyrus, who, when announcing her new album "Something Beautiful", caught everyone off guard by claiming she'd drawn inspiration from none other than the legendary 1979 concept album by Pink Floyd, "The Wall", and the Alan Parker film that accompanied it. To all those who rolled their eyes and traded smug little smirks, she delivered exactly that: her first true concept album, complete with an accompanying film presented in theaters as a multimedia project. But that's not all. In the deluxe edition, Miley unveiled two surprise new tracks that are themselves intergenerational duets with rock legends: "Secrets", made together with Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac (with a video directed by Cyrus alongside Jacob Bixenman and Brendan Walter), and "Lockdown", a thirteen-minute psychedelic suite featuring - once again - David Byrne, already her live partner on a cover of David Bowie's "Let's Dance".

Produced with Shawn Everett and director Panos Cosmatos, "Something Beautiful" presented itself as an ambitious, glamorous work rich in pop references. Moving between soft rock, R&B, synth-pop and electronica, the album marked a turning point in Cyrus's career, mixing moments of real inspiration with a few production excesses. The new edition adds two tracks that broaden its scope, reinforcing its experimental character.

Even Lady Gaga – besides her famous collaboration with the dean of crooners Tony Bennett – has often looked for allies in the rock world, for instance inviting Brian May, the legendary Queen guitarist, to play with her live (as at the 2011 VMAs), while Gen Z star Billie Eilish has often brought Dave Grohl on board for live events, earning from the Foo Fighters founder and frontman the flattering title of “generational heir to the spirit of Nirvana”.

The queen of melancholic pop Lana Del Rey, on the other hand, wanted by her side one of her muses, Stevie Nicks, vocalist of Fleetwood Mac and a legend of California rock, with whom she sang on “Beautiful People Beautiful Problems” (from the album “Lust For Life”).

And could the planet's most successful popstar possibly stay out of it? Of course not, given that Taylor Swift wanted to bring in none other than Mick Jagger, staging duets with the frontman of the Rolling Stones (“As Tears Go By” and “Satisfaction”) on several dates of her world tour.

Even the new star of Iberian pop, Catalan singer Rosalía, has found an authoritative – and unpredictable – ally in the alternative universe thanks to her partnership with Björk. Together with the Icelandic artist, the diva of “Motomami” duetted on the eco-conscious track “Oral“, whose proceeds went to the fight against fish farming in the Seyðisfjörður fjord (in Iceland); she then formed a trio for “Berghain” – the first single from her new album “LUX” – which also features another underground guru, American artist Ives Tumor.

Popstars trying to earn credibility with rock audiences, especially the older and more demanding ones: that, in short, is the leit-motiv. Take Dua Lipa, an artist who had already shown a distinctive sensitivity for the rock music of previous generations through her catalog of local-artist covers performed on tour, ranging from Janis Joplin to Aerosmith, and often bringing on stage to duet with her artists such as Lenny Kravitz, Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day), Gwen Stefani, Lionel Richie and Chaka Khan. In 2021 the Kosovo-born pop-dance queen wanted Elton John by her side for the single “Cold Heart”, a global hit that reinterprets the Rocket Man's style filtered through contemporary electronic pop. But Dua's performance alongside Neil Finn of Crowded House in Auckland (New Zealand) also left its mark, in a poignant “Don’t Dream It’s Over”, in the midst of her 2025 Radical Optimism Tour.

Another leading UK popstar, Sabrina Carpenter, could hardly be left out either. So here is the “Espresso” diva alongside two members of Duran Duran (Simon Le Bon and John Taylor) on the London stage of BST Hyde Park, on the evening of July 6, 2025, for a wild live rendition of “Hungry Like The Wolf”. Carpenter introduced the Birmingham band with enthusiasm: “I thought it would be nice to bring some friends along. I'm gonna need all of you to make some noise, give a huge round of applause and welcome properly the legendary Duran Duran!”. What followed was an instant collective celebration, with fans singing along and cheering.

Other times, though, almost the opposite has happened: a seasoned rock frontman in search of creative rebirth alongside a younger singer. The clearest example is Robert Plant, who, having buried once and for all any hope of a Led Zeppelin reunion, found a new path first in tandem with American country star Alison Krauss – on the covers album “Raising Sand” (2007), followed in 2021 by “Raise The Roof” – and then, more recently, in the company of the angelic Suzi Dian with Saving Grace, with whom he toured the world (here is the live report from the Rome date) and released in 2025 the excellent “Saving Grace”.

Along much the same lines is the “family duet between David Gilmour and his daughter Romany on “Between Two Points“, the track that preceded the latest solo album by the Pink Floyd guitarist, “Luck And Strange”, released in 2024. During the livestreams that Gilmour and his family (the Von Trapped series) put on during the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns, Romany sang and played the harp, and David discovered that their voices blended in a way only possible between members of the same family. “I realized that Romany has exactly the right kind of vulnerability and youthfulness for the song. Actually, she was halfway through an essay and had a train to catch when we asked her: 'OK, I'll sing it just once, turn the mic on' and that – Gilmour revealed – is 90 percent of the final vocal you hear”.

One meeting that can instead be considered halfway between the two is the one between Anna von Hausswolff and Iggy Pop, two artists certainly quite far apart – in terms of age and musical roots – yet ultimately belonging to the same territory of alternative rock: garage-punk-inspired for the Iguana, influenced by gothic and neoclassical music for the blonde chanteuse from Gothenburg. Included on “Iconoclasts”, Von Hausswolff's latest, splendid work, the duet “The Whole Woman” heightens the album's more intimate, visionary dimension: “Sometimes – the Swedish dark muse explained – you have to dive into the deepest waters and hold your breath as long as you can. Once back on the surface, your gaze can look beyond the meanness of life, and only the truth remains. This love song is a tribute to the man who knows how to listen, and it's dedicated to the woman who finds the courage to take the plunge”.

And what about Italy? We've certainly not been immune to this phenomenon: just think of the recent pairings between Francesco De Gregori and Elisa – for the single "Quelli che restano" (2018) – between Motta and Nada (Best Duet at the Sanremo festival, with "Dov'è l'Italy"), between Alfa and Roberto Vecchioni – on the Ariston stage in 2024 for a striking rendition of "Sogna ragazzo sogna" – and between the late Ornella Vanoni and Mahmood on "Sant'Allegria", the track originally included on the 1997 album "Argilla", in which the velvety voice of the grande dame of Italian song met the unmistakable timbre of the singer behind "Soldi". Sanremo has also seen even more improbable unions, such as the one between Rettore and the young Ditonellapiaga, or the one between rapper Briga and Patty Pravo.

Let's close this overview with the most recent duet of all, and perhaps also the most surreal and unpredictable one: that between Charlotte Aitchison, aka Charli XCX, and John Cale. The two joined voices on "House", a track taken from the soundtrack of Emerald Fennell's new film adaptation of "Wuthering Heights", due out on February 14, 2026. On one side, then, the hyper-connected, chameleonic pop aesthetic of the diva behind "Brat"; on the other, the experimental rigour of the man who redefined the very idea of rock avant-garde at the helm of Velvet Underground, leaving his mark on every generation since. Bridging their two worlds is a single aesthetic principle: "elegant and brutal", the phrase Cale once used to define the essence of Velvet's music. Produced together with Finn Keane, the track grew directly out of that conceptual obsession. Charli XCX herself explained the path that led her to seek Cale out: "A few years ago I watched Todd Haynes's documentary on the Velvet Underground. I'm a huge fan of the band, and that film hit me hard. One thing in particular stuck with me: when John talks about one essential requirement in their sound, the fact that every song had to be 'elegant and brutal' at the same time. I wrote the line down on my phone. Every now and then I'd read it again, trying to really understand it. When I started working on the music for the film, I went back to those words." And so the fascination turned into something concrete: "By the end of summer I still hadn't stopped thinking about it. So I got in touch with him. We spoke on the phone and... wow, that voice: so elegant, so brutal. I sent him a few tracks, then we started talking more specifically about 'House'. I told him about an idea close to poetic form. He recorded something and sent it to me. Something only John could have done. And it made me cry."

Yet another creative short circuit capable of erasing every gap in age and sound. And thank goodness for that. Because, in case it wasn't already obvious, it really was about time to bring down (this) barrier too.

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