The song did not originally have the form of a duet. Gotye has said that he did not begin writing it as a two voice song. But when he finished the first part, he realized that the character he had in front of him could not go any further alone. He had reached a dead end and needed a second voice, another side, another truth within the same drama. That is how the need for the presence of Kimbra emerged, the New Zealand singer-songwriter who at that time had already won her country’s Critics’ Choice Award of 2011, an award meant to recognize and support emerging names.