“Alone,” the highly-anticipated third single, is expected to appear on Kim Petras' upcoming debut album and features one of her all-time favorite artists, Nicki Minaj.
Since its initial announcement in early March, the track generated tons of buzz due to the mystery surrounding its featured artist. However, the song was confirmed to guest-star Minaj and be released all on April 21, 2023, as Petras gave her fans a small snippet of the intro on April 6.
Petras first teased the track on March 9 in a TikTok video, and later revealed a second snippet of the chorus on March 15. This made listeners privy to the sample Petras used, a 90s electronic classic titled “Better Off Alone” by Alice DeeJay. Petras' divergent twist combines elements of synth-pop and edged electro-pop, a sound older-Nicki would be comfortable with.
Interestingly, there have been many hints dropped about Nicki’s involvement in “Alone,” prior to the announcement, through Twitter and Instagram engagements:
- Tweeted “zonezoooitttr,” a tribute to Nicki’s “zont zo it” meme
- Minutes later, she replied “nooo … i neeed barbie by my side”
- Kim’s representative messaged Nicki on Instagram about needing their verses.
- Confirmed a sample clear and feature on “Alone” via her Instagram Live
- Liked a “Kim x Nicki manifestation circle” comment—a tweet from a fan
- Liked a “teasing a collaboration” post—a tweet from Pop Crave
- Captioned TikTok “va va voom”—a name-drop of Nicki’s “Va Va Voom” track
- Made a “getting ready to release the song of the summer” TikTok using a Nicki audio
- Tweeted “Barbie ?” post on April 6
- Nicki liked a “JUMP ON PETRAS' NEW SONG” comment—an engagement on TikTok