Ariana Grande has put her own spin on the 1998 Brandy and Monica classic "The Boy Is Mine."
The vocalist and singer, who will release her seventh studio album, Eternal Sunshine, on March 7, recently appeared on The Zane Lowe Show to discuss her comeback LP and upcoming musical film, Wicked.
Around the 24-minute mark of the interview above, Lowe asked Grande about "True Story," which Grande said "sets up 'The Boy Is Mine.'" The song, titled after the 1998 Brandy and Monica classic of the same title, is a rework of the original. "It's kind of like, 'I'll play the bad girl; now here's your bad girl anthem,'" Grande told Lowe about the song.
She added that the song came about after she got a strong reception for "Fantasize," which was leaked last year and went viral on TikTok
“I’ve always wanted to reimagine [‘The Boy Is Mine’] in some kind of way… In a way, I was kind of like, ‘This is a very bad idea.’ But there is a large group of my fans that really do love a bad girl anthem, and this is an elevated version of that,” she said.
On the Zach Sang Show last month, Grande expressed her disappointment with "Fantasize" being leaked, although she used the scrapped song as the direction for "The Boy Is Mine."
“[‘Fantasize’] wasn’t my song and it wasn’t for me. It was like a parody of a '90s girl group vibe, but they loved it. They loved it so much,” Grande told Sang.
She continued, “I took the note, and I gave them Ariana’s version of that on the album. I would say that exists. Some of those seedlings from that time actually made their way onto the album.”
Last December, Monica spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about why "The Boy Is Mine" shouldn't be remade.
"I truthfully believe that it’s for Brandy and I. I appreciate that she and Rodney [Jerkins] asked me to be a part of the song and be a part of the record, but for me, it’s a part of history that I would love to remain untouched," she said.
She continued, "Now, I have heard the music used that is cool when people recreate it for themselves but not attempt to do what she and I did. If someone does something with it, I prefer that they make it their own and do something totally different, but I feel like what she and I did is sacred."
