The Boy Is Mine (song)

The Boy Is Mine is a duet by Monica and R&B singer Brandy. The song was released as the lead single from "The Boy Is Mine" and from Brandy's sophomore album "Never Say Never."

The single was released on May 19, 1998. The song was written by LaShawn Daniels, Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, Fred Jerkins III, Japhe Tejada & Brandy Norwood. It was produced by Rodney Jerkins, Brandy & Dallas Austin.

It was also released as the lead single from Monica's 1998 album "The Boy is Mine."

The song is described as an answer song to Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney's 1982 duet "The Girl Is Mine."

The lyrics of the song revolve around two women disputing the love of a man.

Song Background
Brandy came up with the concept of "The Boy is Mine" while she was watching "The Jerry Springer Show" where the theme of the episode was about love triangles.

It was originally recorded as a solo track. After listening to the song, Brandy and Rodney Jerkins thought the song would work better as a duet which was inspired by Michael Jackson & Paul McCartney's 1982 hit song "The Girl Is Mine."

Upon Brandy's request, Atlantic Records approached teen R&B singer Monica Arnold to collaborate on the song.

Even though the two of them had seen each other in passing at awards shows & several other live events by then, Brandy though that teaming up on the song with Monica would help combat the ongoing rumors that she & Monica shared a rivalry.

With the permission from then-Arista Records (which was the label Monica was signed to)'s label head Clive Davis, Monica signed onto the project.

Originally, Brandy & Monica recorded their vocals together for "The Boy Is Mine" with Rodney and his team at the Record One Studios in North Hollywood.

However, the joint recording was felt to be a failure, so Monica re-recorded her vocals separately at the DARP Studios in Atlanta, Georgia with longtime contributor Dallas Austin.

Thus, Dallas would later share the main production credit alongside Rodney.

Even though Monica & Brandy denied repeatedly that the song reflected any actual rivalry between them, tabloids began writing the opposite.

There were claims that Monica was upset when Brandy performed the song solo on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and Brandy reportedly was miffed when Monica opted to take the name of the duet for the title of her sophomore album.

Following gossip reports that Brandy & Monica came to blows during a rehearsal for a performance at the MTV Video Music Awards in September of 1998, talk of the rivalry became so loud that the singers' managers released a joint statement in which they dismissed the press for its "disturbing behavior" and called the "ongoing negativity [as] totally unfair."

As with "The Boy Is Mine," Rodney later claimed that both singers "they didn’t get along" during production and that he & Dexter Simmons remixed the track seven times to keep everything even.

In a 2012 interview with WZMX, Monica spoke about her past relationship with Brandy:

"We were young. We could barely stay in the room with each other. By no means was it jealousy or envy. She and I are polar opposites and instead of embracing that, we used our differences as reasons not to be amongst each other."

Monica & Brandy have now said they are close friends & meet up with each other regularly with their children.

Video Background
The song's accompanying music video was shot in April of 1998. It was directed by Joseph Kahn.

Brandy and Monica are portrayed as both neighbors & challengers, fighting over the same boy only to end up as allies who amicably settle on dumping their unfaithful lover.

The role of the video's central love interest was played by actor Mekhi Phifer (whom Brandy had previously starred in the slasher film "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer" in 1998).

Video Synopsis
The official music video premiered on Wednesday, April 29, 1998. The video uses the radio edit without the introduction.

The video begins with the girls in their respective apartments, watching television.

While Brandy watches an episode of "The Jerry Springer Show" (whose title is that of the song), Monica accidentally turns Brandy's TV to a romantic movie in which Monica is watching her own TV set.

Whenever Brandy or Monica turns the channel, the other person's TV stays on that channel and they grow sick of it. They then give up and start to sing.

The next scene shows Brandy and Monica discussing their problem with their separate groups of friends.

The "boy" himself (played by Mekhi Phifer) then appears outside the two girls' apartments, where all their friends walk by him as they exit their respective friend's place.

The girls are in their pajamas next & then each one calls the boy over to choose.

After Brandy and Monica fight with words, the boy comes to the apartment, frustrated over whom to choose.

The door opens and only Brandy is shown. Then it swings a little wider to reveal Monica as well. The boy is surprised and the door is slammed in his face.

Chart Performance
On June 6, 1998, "The Boy Is Mine" became both Brandy & Monica's first solo number-one hit and fifth top ten entry for each on the US Billboard Hot 100.

It bounced from number 23 to the top spot, it became the second song in the history of the chart to ascended directly to number-one from a previous position beneath the Top 20, following The Beatles and the 27–1 leap of their single "Can't Buy Me Love" in April of 1964.

In addition, it was the first number-one collaboration between solo women since 1979's two-weeks number-one run of Barbra Streisand & Donna Summer's song "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)."

The same week, the song also moved to number-one on the Hot R&B Singles, the Hot 100 Singles Sales and the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales charts.

Within the first month of its purchasable release, the song went on to sell 605,000 units.

It spent thirteen consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 and has since been ranked among the longest running number-one songs in US chart history, sharing this record with Boyz II Men's 1992 song "End of the Road."

The song was the best-selling single of 1998 in the US with sales of over 2,600,000, with the second best-selling single being Next's "Too Close."

It was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and was ranked eighth on Billboard's Decade-End Charts.

The song spent 21 weeks in the top 10 and a total of 27 weeks in the Top 50.

Outside the US, "The Boy Is Mine" reached the top-ten in over 14 countries and topped the chart in Canada, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

In Canada, the song debuted on the RPM Singles Chart at number 74 on the RPM issue dated June 1, 1998 and reached the top spot of the chart on August 21, 1998.

It was present on the chart for a total of 45 weeks.

It reached the top-two in Belgium, France (platinum), Ireland, Norway (gold), and the United Kingdom (platinum); the top-five in Australia, Germany (gold), Sweden, and Switzerland (gold) and the top-ten in Austria (gold) and Italy.

Live Performances
On September 10, 1998, Brandy and Monica first promoted "The Boy Is Mine" together with a live performance at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards in Los Angeles, California.

On December 16, 2008, they came together for a second time surprise performance at Atlanta’s V103 Soul Session, singing acapella.

In 2012, Brandy and Monica performed the song as well as their new duet "It All Belongs To Me" at V-103's "Conversation/Soul Session."

Accolades
"The Boy Is Mine" won many prestigious awards throughout 1998 and 1999.

It was nominated for three Grammy Awards at the 41st annual ceremony, winning both singer's their first prize by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in the "Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals" category.

However, the song lost its nominations for "Record of the Year" and "Best R&B Song" to Celine Dion's song "My Heart Will Go On" and Lauryn Hill's song "Doo Wop (That Thing)" respectively.

The song garnered three Billboard Music Awards. It was also nominated for Record of the Year.

Billboard listed it 54th on the Billboard "All-Time Hot 100 Top Songs." It is listed as the 62nd on the most successful singles in France ever.

It is also listed among one of the most successful 200 singles in Australia, Netherlands and Belgium in music history.

In 2008, Billboard ranked "The Boy Is Mine" 54th on its All-Time Hot 100 Top Songs chart, a definitive list of the Hot 100's top 100 songs from the chart's first 50 years: August of 1958 through July of 2008.

In addition, it was listed 18th on the All-Time Top R&B/Hip-Hop Songs countdown.

In 2008, Billboard ranked the song third on a special The 40 Biggest Duets of All Time listing.

"The Boy Is Mine" is the best-selling song of 1998 in the United States with 2.6 million copies sold.

The music video was nominated for two 1998 MTV Video Music Awards for "Best R&B Video" & Video of the Year which both lose to Wyclef Jean's song "Gone Till November" and Madonna's song "Ray of Light" respectively.