You'll Never, Ever Guess Who Inspired Brandy & Monica's "The Boy is Mine"
The idea for the 1998 smash hit came from a surprising place.
Everybody say "thank you" to Jerry Springer for one of the greatest duets of all time.
Brandy and Monica appeared on The Tonight Show on Wednesday, June 25 to promote their upcoming The Boy Is Mine tour. The R&B icons explained the origins of its titular song, which dominated the charts in 1998.
"I was a huge Jerry Springer fan, and one of the topics was, 'The boy is mine,'" she told Jimmy Fallon. "I'm like, 'Oh my god, song idea, let's do this.'"
This fun fact explains a lot for anyone who remembers how the music video begins. Brandy is watching The Jerry Springer Show when Monica changes the channel. Brandy changes it back, and this fight over the TV appears to begin their battle over the boy.
Is the boy...Jerry Springer?
The Jerry Springer Show plays in "The Boy Is Mine" video
For 27 seasons, The Jerry Springer Show presented audiences with the wildest controversies, scandals, and feuds it could find among the general public, and Springer introduced many episodes with the phrase "worst TV show of all time." Understandably, Monica had a little hesitation about doing a song inspired by the drama on that stage.
"When I first heard the song, I'm like, 'But people are going to think we're fighting, and people still think we're fighting,'" Monica told Fallon, as Brandy whispered, "That was the point!"
"So I don't know if it's the greatness of the song, but it did just start something completely different," Monica continued. "We're a musical marriage."
Not only did The Jerry Springer Show hit ratings higher than Oprah's in 1997 and 1998, but "The Boy Is Mine" became 1998's top selling single and won a Grammy in 1999.
Ariana Grande called Monica and Brandy to ask if she could remix "The Boy Is Mine"
Monica and Brandy have been fairly protective of their song, so it was significant that they gave Ariana Grande permission to do her own version.
"I think it was how personable she was that made us feel so comfortable," Monica said. "We've been very adamant: Just leave history as it is. But the integrity of it was still there."
Monica's 11-year-old daughter Laiyah is a big fan of Grande's Nickelodeon show Victorious, so that call was a very big deal.
"When [Grande] Facetimed me, [Laiyah] is like, 'Mom? Mom?'" she said, imitating her excited kid. "I was like, 'Yeah, she calls me all the time.'"
After 27 years of thinking about it, Brandy and Monica will launch The Boy Is Mine Tour on October 16 in Cincinatti. Brandy called it "divine timing," and when Fallon asked if this tour means there might also be new music to look forward to, they didn't say no.
"I think it opens the door for sure," Brandy said. "We need new songs to sing on the tour!"
