Since emerging as Paramore’s ringleader whilst still a teenager in 2005, Hayley Williams has embarked on one of the most compelling career arcs in modern rock. It has been a journey imbued with a restless sense of adventure, one that has seen the Tennessee-raised 36-year-old go from exuberant emo-pop teen to one an alternative dynamo swaggering from genre to genre. Basically, Williams pays no heed to what anyone else thinks she should be doing. It’s all there in her best work, whether that’s in the defiant singalongs of Paramore’s early output, the synth-pop grooves underpinning their later years or the intimate contemplatives of her solo material. This is not an artist who can be, or wants to be, easily defined.
But Williams is also a generous collaborator, one who has turned up for guest spots on other artists’ work right across her career. It makes for a curious and insightful addition to her CV. If you want to map how Hayley Williams realised that she had a lot more to offer the world than hanging around with the same old bands she’d bump into on the Warped tour, then her guest vocal spots are a good place to start. Here’s seven of her best:
Set Your Goals – The Few That Remain
Paramore were increasingly becoming a big deal by the time Williams guested on this crunching 2009 track by San Franciscan punk crew Set Your Goals. Her vocal, heralded by a comically theatrical entrance halfway through, completely transforms the vibe of the song, somehow making it feel both heavier and warmer, the melodicism suddenly clearer than it had been previously.
B.o.B - Airplanes
Just a year later, though, Williams was really spreading her wings. Yes, that an airplane-related pun, thank you. A team-up with US rapper B.o.B, this lithe, mid-tempo hip-hop-pop was the sound of Williams letting loose with her radio-friendly pop hook smarts. It was a huge hit, peaking at Number Two on the Billboard Hot 100.
![B.o.B - Airplanes (feat. Hayley Williams of Paramore) [Official Video] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/kn6-c223DUU/maxresdefault.jpg)
Mewithoutyou – Foxes Dream Of The Log Flume
This jerky, rhythmically awkward track from a 2012 album by post-hardcore experimentalists Mewithoutyou (one of Williams’ favourite bands) showed just how dextrous and adaptable Williams could be as a performer, not just holding her own on a strange indie-folk song that sounds like it’s been possessed by a math-rock demon but becoming the anchor for the track as it threatens to topple over near the end.
Chvrches – Bury It
One of the standouts from Scottish trio Chvrches’ second record Every Open Eye, Bury It’s synth-pop jubilance had a additional extra magic dust sprinkled on it when Williams guested on a version released on an extended edition release of the album. Williams and Chvrches’ singer Lauren Mayberry’s voices sound excellent together too. Williams & Mayberry would be a good name for a side-project, come to think of it. Failing that, it would also work if they ever wanted to start up a private detective’s agency.
Taylor Swift – Castles Crumbling
Originally written for but ultimately left off of Swift’s 2010 album Speak Now, Castles Crumbling belatedly got its moment on the re-recorded Taylor’s Version edition of the album. It’s one of the most perfectly chosen guest singer selections of Swift’s career, inviting her close friend Williams to duet on a track that reflects on sudden fame, now delivered over a decade later, both having made it through.
Turnstile – Seein’ Stars
Williams joins Blood Orange leader Dev Hynes on backing vocals duty on the chiming 80s pop swagger of Seein’ Stars, one of the first songs released from Turnstile’s 2025-defining record Never Enough. Williams might not be adding much colour here beyond a few harmonies in the background, but her presence feels key in helping to establish Never Enough as Turnstile’s big moment. She’s the star name amongst a stellar supporting cast that also includes singer-songwriter Faye Webster, production don A.G. Cook, jazz maven Shabaka Hutchings, supreme saxophonist Leland Whitty and more.
![TURNSTILE - SEEIN’ STARS / BIRDS [OFFICIAL VIDEO] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/a95G2GzB3t0/maxresdefault.jpg)
David Byrne – What Is The Reason For It?
And so to the most recent guest vocal of Williams’ career (although not for long – she also appears on the new record from LA singer-songwriter Jay Som, out next month). But this is a fine place to end this list. Whether during his time in Talking Heads or in his solo work, Byrne has proved himself the master at balancing the inventive and the accessible, ways of thinking that have also underpinned Williams’ career. She sounds like she’s having a blast on the urgent, Mariachi thrust of this cut from Byrne’s recent album Who Is The Sky?.
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