Australian dance pop duo Peking Duk refuse to let their Swedish star Elliphant say no to Stranger

A BEAUTIFUL friendship has spawned a chart-topper for Peking Duk and Elliphant — despite the Swedish star telling the Aussie duo to find someone else.

Peking Duk and their friend Elliphant are on track for a bit hit with Stranger. Picture: Carly Earl

SWEDISH singer and rapper Elliphant told Peking Duk to get someone else to sing on their hit-in-waiting Stranger.

Written late last year in Sydney while Elliphant was touring for the Falls Festival, the song has been redone by the trio several times over the year.

Stranger is likely to become the Duk’s next big hit, following on from chart-toppers including High and Take Me Over, with the single landing on the iTunes top 10 and closing in on two million spins on Spotify.

Elliphant is grateful her good mates Adam Hyde and Reuben Styles ignored her requests to give it to another artist.

Australian chart-topping dance music duo Peking Duk with Swedish singer and rapper Elliphant in Sydney. Picture: Supplied

“I wasn’t over it but it wasn’t the same song and we had other stuff we had written together which I really liked,” she said.

“I told them that maybe there would be a better person to do Stranger because they weren’t satisfied, I wasn’t coming up with the vocal they wanted.

“If I heard it out there with some other girl now I would be so annoyed.”

Styles said they were determined to finish the song with the good mate they met at an American music festival last year and have enjoyed countless beers with since on the global tour circuit.

“The song was constantly mutating and we would go back to Sweden and tell Elli ‘We changed the song on you again’,” he said.

“She would tell us to get someone else and we would ignore her.”

In the two weeks since its release it has become the most played track on Triple J and received its live premiere last weekend at a festival in Newcastle.

Its initial success has buoyed the confidence of the ARIA award winners who continue to work on their debut record with a raft of hitmakers including Daniel Johns, Jarryd James and Julia Stone.

“We were nervous. The last single Say My Name didn’t get the same response as High and Take Me Over but we could feel the love with this one once it got out there,” Hyde said.

Now Elliphant is on the case to have the song released in Europe.

“Artists do everything themselves these days for their music with Instagram and twitter, all the label has to do is put out our songs so I am trying to push them to do that,” she said.

Elliphant continues her Australia tour, performing at the Beach Hotel, Bondi on Wednesday, Fat Controller, Adelaide on Friday and Melbourne Music Week next week.