Ciara Says Her No. 1 Hit 'Goodies' Was Almost Given To Britney Spears

Ciara says her breakout hit almost became a Britney Spears record.

The 34-year-old shared the story behind the situation during a recent broadcast, revealing that her chart-topping 2004 debut single came this close to being given to Spears. As Ciara explained, when switching labels from Arista Records to Jive Records in the early 2000s, the Petey Pablo-assisted jam was being pitched to several other artists on her new label.

“When I had this record, I knew that it was a very, very special record. And I worked so hard on this record and this industry can sometimes bring you incredible challenges,” said Ciara. But unbeknownst to me… it was myself and a lot of the other artists on the Arista roster, we all went to Jive Records because changes were happening at Arista Records.”

During the switch, Ciara said she already had “Goodies” but was made to audition again “to be made a priority” on Arista. (In her words, she “rocked it.”)

However, things were happening behind the scenes that she wasn’t privy to, revealing, "there was a conversation about this song being potentially taken from me and given to an artist like Britney Spears, who was on the same roster as me.”

“I learned about the story later, but the crazy thing for me is that if I would’ve known about it then, I would have fought tooth and nail,” the R&B star said. “It was because it’s a record that I actually was a part of creating. I was heavily involved in the writing side of it as well.”

Ciara’s “Goodies” shot to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 at the time it released, and stayed there for seven weeks, becoming the longest-running debut single by a female artist on the chart since 1977.

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