Nathan Sykes, whom had dated Ariana Grande in 2013, says he is happy about her success but no longer has romantic feelings toward the star.
While speaking at the London Capital FM Summertime Ball – where the two performed on Saturday – the 23-year-old told Bang Showbiz: “Hold a candle? No! Obviously I’m really happy for her she’s doing amazing, if I saw her I’d be like ‘Hey what’s up’… What a strange question ‘Do you still fancy your ex girlfriend’.”
The former couple had previously worked on two duets; Over and Over Again as well as Almost is Never Enough.
Though Sykes acknowledges that performing a duet more than once is not typical, he is open to the idea of recording with the Dangerous Woman singer yet again.
“Obviously we’ve done two songs together now with ‘Almost is Never Enough‘ on her debut album and ‘Over and Over Again‘ which we released our duet version. So we’ve worked together twice now which is quite a lot for collaborations but you never know I think she’s incredible, she’s incredibly talented so you never know what’s going to happen.”
The 23-year-old also insists that it wasn’t odd for him to work with his former lover on these hits.
“It’s not weird to me at all. I think the most important thing for me is that she’s an incredible vocalist and I really think she brings something great to the song.
He continued, “I think it shows real maturity that we can both do this and not really let it bother us.”
Sykes also admits that it’s been a while since the two dated, which makes collaborating with Grande easier.
“I’ve experienced so much life experience in those years [that] it does feel like forever ago.”