Justin Bieber was lined up for Fifty Shades Freed duet

9 January 2018

'Fifty Shades Freed' producers originally intended for Justin Bieber to sing with Rita Ora on 'For You'.

Justin Bieber

Bosses at Universal Pictures were desperate to get the pop megastar on the track "with or without" Rita, after securing Taylor Swift on the last movie, 'Fifty Shades Darker', with former One Direction star Zayn Malik on 'I Don't Wanna Live Forever'.

However, the 'Sorry' hitmaker was reportedly intent on not taking on extra jobs during his hiatus.

An insider told the Daily Star newspaper: "Originally Universal Pictures wanted Justin Bieber to sing a song on the soundtrack, either with or without Rita.

"He's the biggest male pop star in the world and so that's what they aimed for.

"They had the world's biggest female pop star in Taylor Swift do the last film, so they were keen for something a bit different because Zayn Malik sang that with her and he comes from One Direction as well."

Zayn's former bandmate Liam Payne ended up recording the track with the 'Your Song' singer, which he was over the moon with.

In a newsletter to his fans, the 'Strip That Down' hitmaker wrote: "Buzzing to start the new year having a new single out with Rita Ora called For You! We had a lot of fun making this in the studio so I hope you like it! It's the lead track from the new Fifty Shades Freed movie. It's out now so go give it a listen. (sic)"

Meanwhile, lead star Jamie Dornan has recorded a cover of Sir Paul McCartney's hit 'Maybe I'm Amazed' for the soundtrack.

The 35-year-old actor stars as Christian Grey in the final instalment of the 'Fifty Shades' series which was based on the trio of novels by E.L. James, and it seems as though his starring role won't be the only contribution he makes to the movie.

According to the official tracklisting - which was announced on the movie's Instagram page on Monday (08.01.17) - Jamie lends his voice to a rendition of the song, which was first released by the former Beatles legend in 1970 for his album 'McCartney'.

The track was never released as a single, but a live version was recorded with Paul's post-Beatles band Wings for their live album 'Wings Over America', where it became a top 10 hit in America and reached number 28 in the UK.