OH, BOY!

Brandy and Monica Reveal Source of Inspiration for ‘The Boy Is Mine’

Brandy told Jimmy Fallon that a certain tabloid talk show host fueled their breakout song together.

Sometimes inspiration strikes in unexpected places. That was the case for R&B stars Brandy and Monica, who revealed the true inspiration for their hit 1998 song “The Boy is Mine” during an appearance on The Tonight Show. Brandy confirmed long-held suspicions that an episode on The Jerry Springer Show about love triangles inspired the chart-topping single, which won both singers a Grammy. “I was a huge Jerry Springer fan, and one of the topics was, ‘The boy is mine,’” Brandy said. “I’m like, ‘Oh my god, song idea. Let’s do this.’” Brandy said that she was “always a fan” of Monica’s and that the idea for the call-and-response banger finally spurred her to suggest a collaboration. Despite rumors of a feud between the two artists, which the lyrics of “The Boy is Mine” only fueled, the pair collaborated again on a single in 2012 as well as a remix of Ariana Grande’s song by the same name last year. This week, the singers also announced a joint tour which will start in October and feature Kelly Rowland, Muni Long, and Jamal Roberts.