Ariana Grande to 'reimagine' Brandy and Monica's 'The Boy Is Mine' on new album: 'A bad-girl anthem'

The artist called the song an "elevated version" of her previously unreleased single "Fantasize."

Excuse me, can I please talk to you for a minute? Because Ariana Grande just revealed that she’s putting a brand-new spin on Brandy and Monica’s 1998 hit “The Boy Is Mine” on her latest album, Eternal Sunshine.

“I love that song,” Grande told Zane Lowe in an Apple Music interview posted Thursday. “I’ve always wanted to reimagine that in some kind of way.”

The “Thank U, Next” singer said that she was inspired to reinvent the ‘90s anthem — which lyrically follows a confrontation between two women who are dating the same man — after seeing the fan reaction to her leaked song “Fantasize.”

While it was never officially released, “Fantasize” went viral on social media and featured lyrics that described wanting to steal another person’s partner, with Grande singing, “Thought you were solo / But you got a girl though / And my life ain't been the same.”

Speaking with Lowe, Grande described her version of “The Boy Is Mine” as an extension of “Fantasize” in its own way. “I think I was kind of like, ‘This is a very bad idea,’” she said. “But there is a large group of my fans that really — they do love a bad-girl anthem, and this is, I think, an elevated version of that.”

Grande’s decision to release “The Boy Is Mine” has raised eyebrows on social media amid her ongoing relationship with Wicked costar Ethan Slater, whom she reportedly began dating after her split from husband Dalton Gomez last year. Slater, who was married prior to the start of their relationship, similarly filed for divorce from his wife, Lilly Jay, in July.

One fan posted a video of someone furiously texting on a smoking phone with the caption, "me explaining how 'the boy is mine' by ariana grande is pure FUN just like fantasize and the story is not real!" Another added, "Ariana Grande Is crystal clear in communication."

While visiting The Zach Sang Show last week, Grande declined to dig into any rumors, but said that she felt an "insatiable frustration" and an "inexplicable, hellish feeling with watching people misunderstand the people you love, and you, and anything." It also made her concerned about how her new album, which drops Friday, would be interpreted by fans.

"Pieces of it touch on things that are real and then pieces of it are also just, like, part of the concept," she said. "So what is that separation? And it's so scary to leave it up to these selective memory people to decipher. It's scary. But I digress. It's too late. The vinyls have been printed."

Watch Grande's interview with Lowe above.

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