Heidi Klum Breaks Into Music With a Dance Track Featuring Snoop Dogg

There’s no supermodel quite like Heidi Klum. (Look no further than her annual tradition of observing Halloween by making what borders on performance art, or unapologetic habit of sunbathing topless even around her children.) We can now add a collaboration with Snoop Dogg to the 48-year-old’s delightful output. On Thursday night, the 48-year-old surprised her fans with a single titled “Chai Tea With Heidi,” which also features DJ Wedding Cake and a sample from Rod Stewart’s “Baby Jane.” The song is Klum’s first musical release since her holiday single “Wonderland,” which came out in 2006.

“Ladies, can I talk to y’all for a minute?,” Snoop Dogg begins the “Chai Tea With Heidi.” He quickly answers his own question: “Yes.” From there come a couple of references to Klum’s modeling career: “You say I’m always high / We keep that on the low / Flossy, it’s a day on the runway, you can let it go,” and “The walk mean, fierce, feisty / Girl, you're hot and you're sweet like chai tea.” Klum joins him for the chorus, which begins, “When I give my heart again, I know / It’s gonna last forever.”

Klum made sure to prepare before proposing that they collaborate on what will soon become the theme song of Germany’s Next Top Model. “The time from when I called [Snoop Dogg] and actually driving to Inglewood, I was not at home twiddling my thumbs,” she told Billboard. “I’m not gonna drive to Snoop Dogg and not have anything, I’m gonna work on something. So I worked with DJ Wedding Cake, I worked on getting this track together and already I was thinking what can I sing over this, and I’ve always loved Rod and I think his lyrics and his melodies are so beautiful.”

When she played Stewart’s “Baby Jane” for Snoop Dogg, the 50-year-old rapper was immediately on board. “He’s like, ‘Oh, dance. You guys love dance tracks in Germany,’” Klum recalled. “And he went into the vocal booth right there and started rapping over it.” Three days later, the song was a wrap. Next came the (as yet unreleased) music video, shot by famed fashion photographer Rankin, which they fully completed before sending the whole “Chai Tea With Heidi” package along to Stewart. A month went by before Klum realized she should check her spam. “He actually emailed me back immediately,” Klum recalled with a laugh. “He loves the song. He was like, ‘Yes, you have the OK.’”

Klum isn’t the only veteran supermodel who’s joined forces with a rapper. Back in 1991, three years before she released her little-known R&B album Baby Woman, Naomi Campbell released a song titled “Cool as Ice (Everybody Get Loose)” with Vanilla Ice.