Eminem & Adele Join Forces on Gut-Wrenching New Ballad “Kept Her Anyway” – A Story of Love, Loyalty, and the Cost of Holding On

When Eminem and Adele announced they were collaborating, fans expected fireworks — but what they got was something far deeper, darker, and more haunting. Kept Her Anyway, released at midnight without warning, is already being hailed as “a modern-day Stan for the brokenhearted”.

 THE SOUND

Built on a slow, cinematic piano progression, the track opens with Adele’s signature vocal ache — soft at first, then swelling into a powerhouse chorus that feels like a tidal wave of emotion. Eminem’s verses weave in between, stripped-back and conversational, his flow hovering just above the keys.

Produced by Rick Rubin and Greg Kurstin, the song mixes raw live instrumentation with subtle hip-hop percussion, allowing the emotion to breathe. Strings, recorded at Abbey Road Studios, come in only in the final chorus, hitting like a gut punch.

The track unfolds as a confessional between two perspectives:

Eminem’s verses tell the story of a relationship everyone else said was toxic — friends walked away, family warned him, but he stayed.

Adele’s choruses voice the other side, aching with gratitude and guilt: “You could’ve left me broken, but you kept me anyway.”

Fans are already dissecting the verses for possible real-life references — some say Em’s lines about “late-night calls from London” nod to a real relationship from his past, while others hear echoes of Adele’s own turbulent love history.

 FAN REACTIONS

“This is Love the Way You Lie but 20 years older, wiser, and sadder.”

“I didn’t think I could cry over a rap verse until tonight.”

“Adele’s last chorus sounds like she’s breaking as she sings — that’s not acting, that’s real.”

Within six hours, Kept Her Anyway hit #1 on Apple Music’s Global Chart and surpassed 7 million Spotify streams, making it the fastest combined rap-ballad debut of 2025 so far.