Gitchie-gitchie yourself a load of this juicy drama.
Sex, divas and shade, honey! Those were the makings of music producer Missy Elliott’s masterful 2001 “Lady Marmalade” remix — which celebrates its 20th anniversary next month.
While the Grammy Award-winning track — with lusty vocal contributions from pop powerhouse Christina Aguilera, rock ‘n’ roll fireball Pink, R&B dynamo Mya and hip-hop heroine Lil’ Kim — starts off with a sultry salute to “all the soul sistas,” the vibe between the singers was anything but sisterly.
“I think it’s pretty public knowledge that there was tension between Christina and Pink,” Tina Landon, who served as lead choreographer on the music video for the chart-topping jam, told Cosmopolitan.
Landon, Missy, Mya and Aguilera all recently revisited the sweet beats and sour notes of working together on the colorful collaborative piece that had almost every millennial sing-screaming “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?” with the radio volume on full blast.
“It got a little hairy at one point,” the choreographer said of the unharmonious energy between Aguilera and Pink.
Their bad blood boiled over on March 17, 2001, during the two-day video shoot in Los Angeles.
“They were all sitting there watching each other work. Paul Hunter, the director, was trying to give Christina direction and she couldn’t hear him,” Landon said.
“She said, ‘What did you say?’ And Pink reiterated what Paul had said. Christina did the thing: ‘I was talking to Paul.’ I just sank down in my chair going, ‘Oh, God, please don’t let this get worse.’ And it didn’t!”
Although the dance pro remembers the on-set edginess, Pink, 41, said the beef between her and XTina ignited well before a single “Lady Marmalade” lyric was ever sung.
“[Aguilera’s label executive] Ron Fair walked in and didn’t say hello to any of us,” Pink said of one of the formative meetings she had with her would-be collaborators. She recounted the incident during her feature on VH1’s “Behind the Music” in 2009.
“He said, ‘What’s the high part? What’s the most singing part? Christina’s going to take that part,’ ” she recalled.
“And I stood up and said, ‘Hi. How are you? So nice of you to introduce yourself. I’m Pink. She will not be taking that part. I think that’s what the f – – king meeting is about.”
From there, “I just became the a – – hole,” Pink added.
But after years of exchanging thinly veiled barbs, unmistakable side-eye glares and nearly resorting to fisticuffs during a heated exchange at a club, the “So What” superstar said she’s made amends with her “Fighter” singing rival.
“She’s so talented and, deep down, I’ve had bad days, too. She’s a really sweet person. We made up on ‘The Voice,’ ” Pink told Andy Cohen on “Watch What Happens Live” in 2017.
Aguilera, 40, echoed Pink’s illustration of their newfound friendship to Cosmo.
“She’s such a powerhouse and definitely paved the way, setting the precedent of pushing back if something didn’t feel right,” she said.
‘She’s so talented and, deep down, I’ve had bad days, too.’
Pink
Decades-old shadiness aside, Mya, 41, praised “Lady Marmalade” — a remake of Patti LaBelle’s 1974 tune — as the women’s empowerment anthem of the day.
“It was truly about coming together, being women, being slightly over the top, expressing ourselves, and exuding our bold approach to being sexual beings,” the singer insisted.
Producer Elliott, 49, reimagined LaBelle’s original version of the song to be used as a seductive hymn for director Baz Luhrmann’s blockbuster “Moulin Rouge!” The ornate film earned Oscar and Golden Globe accolades in 2002.
Although La Belle, 76, gladly belted out the hit alongside Pink, Mya, Aguilera and Lil’ Kim — all of whom she lovingly refers to as her “little girls” — at the 2002 Grammys, the music legend still demands the world’s respect as the “Lady Marmalade” originator.
“People loved it and still do today,” the Philadelphia native told Cosmo.
“When I do it onstage, I have to say to the audience, ‘I did this 100 years ago. These little heifers, they did it 20 years ago and it’s a hit.’ I have to remind them that I did it first. Isn’t that something?”
