‘Umbrella’ Was For Britney Spears And ‘Bad’ Was For Prince: The Biggest Hits Who Regretted Rejecting Other Artists

Throughout the history of music, certain songs have established themselves as classics of global popular culture. However, what few know is that not all of them were originally designed for the artists who found success with them.

And it is that, behind successes like Umbrella by Rihanna o Bad by Michael Jackson, there were other singers like Britney Spears oh Prince that, at first, they would have had the offer to appropriate these songs, but they rejected them. What they didn’t know at the time was that by turning down the offer, they were also giving up performing some of the most unforgettable pieces.

On February 12, 2023, Rihanna returned to the stage in style, when she offered an unforgettable show during Super Bowl halftime and something that was not missing was the moment when the famous sang a fragment of her song Umbrella.

But like a trip down memory lane, this melody was composed by Christopher Difficult Stewart there Thrice The dream Naswho, with the advice of producer Kuk Harrell, managed to create in 2007 a must-have hit today.

According to an old interview which The dream given for Billboardthe track was born quickly in the recording studio and almost by surprise.

“It took maybe 15 minutes to get the song out, started as a freestyle rap and never stopped flowingmetaphor after metaphor. I was in a zone and feeling like I wasn’t going to finish until I finished what I had to say,” he said.

Likewise, with regard to the well-known refrain of the melody where the “She, she, uh, uh, uh”, the composer recalled that this part was a bit more fun and experimental.

“The ‘Ella’ part was a reverb game. In the past, we couldn’t afford the right reverb program, so i started repeating the phrases to make it sound like thisí”, he counted.

For his part, Kuk Harrell corroborated for the book hit the factory by John Seabrook this version of events and added that everything happened completely suddenly.

“Stewart sat down in front of a keyboard and started playing chords… Then he programmed a bass line. At that point, The Dream walked into the studio, listened to the song with the word “umbrella” in mind. He entered the vocal booth and took the microphone.singing ‘under my umbrella. And then, inspired, he added the most important echoes, “she she she eh eh eh”, which became the song’s signature refrain,” he remarked.

But, in addition to the origin of the song, something that has happened over the years is that Umbrella It was not originally intended for Rihannaif not then Britney Spears.

Although they offered the singer of Toxic to include said single in his album BlackoutBritney’s label –Jive Records – reportedly declined the offer, Well, they argued that the famous already had enough songs for her album.

But it didn’t stop there, as later the composers went to Mary J. Blige to take the theme, but she didn’t want to either due to her busy schedule.

“It was Grammys time for me. It was a big time; I was nominated for eight Grammys and I was trying to come together for it. And during that time is when ‘Umbrella ‘ came to me and I couldn’t do anything with it ’cause I was so busy with my own life“said the artist during a series of questions in Watch what’s happening live with Andy Cohen a few years ago.

Finally, given the uncertainty, the proposal for Umbrella came to a young Rihanna who unknowingly accepted one of the songs that would elevate his career to unsuspected heights.

Thus, during a conversation that the singer of other hits like love in the brain oh Diamonds had with Ellen’s show In 2007, he said that from the beginning he wanted to be able to interpret the said song.

“The first time I heard ‘Umbrella’, I knew how much I loved the song. I thought it had one of the most original sounds of any song I’ve ever heard.…. Eventually I contacted one of the managers and I said, ‘This song is mine…I’ll fight you if I don’t have this song,'” Rihanna said.

In 1987, headlines around the world were once again consolidating michael jackson as one of the most important references in the world of pop, since he released his album Bad, who had hits like man in the mirror oh Smooth criminal.

Before its creation, we know that the king of pop I had planned to include some collaborations with international artists such as whitney houston oh by Aretha Franknone of which succeeded in materializing.

But, one of the duets that was almost consolidated was Prince and Michael, because the song Bad It was designed for these two figures of the music industry to blend their talents in unexpected ways.

Unfortunately, Prince allegedly rejected the offer and, in an interview he had with Chris Rock in 1997, broke his silence on the matter and went deeper into the details of why he refused to participate in a must-watch song.

“Did you see the Wesley Snipes character in the video? It would have been me.” The artist explained himself before assuring that the words of the melody would not have been to his liking.

“The first line of the song ‘your ass is mine’ and then I thought who sings it to whom? Because surely you don’t sing it to me and I sure don’t sing it to you,” he said. recount.

In a conversation that Quincy Jones – the famous music producer who was in charge of many of Jackson’s hits – deepened during The National on why the duo has not been revealed.

“We invited (Prince) to Michael’s house to sing on Bad, and he was very smart about it. Prince was always in competition with Michael. So I said to Michael, ‘you sit there and Prince you’ sit there, so it doesn’t look like we’re teaming up with him to make the record‘. It was a nice reunion, a fun reunion, and (Prince) said ‘you don’t need me for this, he’s going to be number one anyway’, which he was.

During this interview, Jones confessed that apparently the line Prince didn’t want to sing was not a random decision: “Your ass is mine, it was made for (Prince)” , did he declare.

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