14 Famous Collaborators Who Had Great Chemistry On Stage But A Whooole Lot Of Tension Backstage

Watching not just one but two of your favorite musicians perform together is electrifying. They feed off each other's energy for the crowd or for the camera.

NBC / Via giphy.com

However, amazing onstage chemistry doesn't always mean they get along backstage. Sometimes, there's drama brewing behind the scenes.

NBC / Via giphy.com

Here are 14 celeb duos who performed together but had serious beef behind the scenes:

1.Jennifer Lopez and Shakira coheadlined the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show — but one of them wasn't too happy about sharing the stage.

In her documentary Halftime, Lopez said, "This is the worst idea in the world to have two people do the Super Bowl. It was the worst idea in the world."

In a conversation with Shakira, she said, "If it was going to be a double-headliner, they should have given us 20 minutes [instead of 12]. That's what they should've fucking done."

2.Liam Payne was one of five members of One Direction from its formation on The X Factor in 2010 until the group went on hiatus in 2016. Some of the members got along better than others.

Payne once got into a physical altercation with one of his bandmates backstage — but he refused to name the specific member.

On the podcast Impaulsive with Logan Paul, he said, "There was one moment where there was an argument backstage and one member in particular threw me up a wall. So I said to him, 'If you don’t remove those hands, there’s a high likelihood you’ll never use them again.'"

3.Halsey and G-Eazy released "Him & I" in 2017. They were also in a pretty public relationship from August 2017 until July 2018.

Then, in February 2019, Halsey seemingly confirmed the reason for their split. While performing "Without Me" — a song they allegedly wrote about G — on Saturday Night Live, a handwritten note was projected on the stage behind them. It read, "I'm so sorry Ashley I cheated."

Other portions of the note also listed places where the writer had cheated on her, including "places I can't even remember."

4.Brandy and Monica released "The Boy Is Mine" in 1998, sparking rumors of a backstage feud. While promoting their duet, they only performed it together once.

Producer Dallas Austin told VLAD TV, "Monica never liked Brandy." He also alleged that the rumors about them fighting at the VMAs had some truth to them. He said, "Before they could even get to the stage, Monica decked [Brandy] in the face.”

They finally put their feud to rest on the Instagram Live show Verzuz in 2020. They finally performed the song together again and hugged it out.

5.Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were dating when they joined Fleetwood Mac in 1975. However, she ended their relationship after the band recorded Rumours — the album that put the band on the map.

They continued performing together for decades, but Buckingham continued to blame their breakup on their band. Nicks told Oprah's Master Class, "Had we not joined Fleetwood Mac, we would’ve continued on with our music, but we probably would’ve gotten married, and we probably would’ve had a child. It would have been a different life."

Finally, in 2018, Nicks decided she couldn't work with her ex anymore — and he was fired from the band.

6.Ashley Tisdale and Lucas Grabeel played twins Sharpay and Ryan Evans in High School Musical and toured together with High School Musical: The Concert — but they "hated each other."

Reuniting in a YouTube video a decade later, Grabeel said, "We didn’t get off on the right foot."

Tisdale added, "I definitely was a lot like Sharpay, and Lucas was like, 'Who is this person?' And I was like, 'Who is this person?' ... But after we wrapped, I don’t know. I’ve always had a love for you. You’re literally like my twin brother."

7.Charlie Puth and Little Mix released "Oops" in 2016. When they performed it live on X Factor, he had a crush on one of the members — but she already had a boyfriend.

He told the Bizarre Life podcast, "Me and Jade [Thirlwall] had a bit of a look on X Factor. She’s in a relationship I found out that night. I was on stage singing with them and was like, 'Oh Jade, she’s so sexy.' She’s so lovely, [but] well she’s taken. I will say she’s taken and I’m glad she’s happy."

Then, during a game of "Truth or Wine" with BuzzFeed in 2020, Little Mix refused to name which past collaboration they'd say no to today. However, Jesy Nelson gave a one-word clue — LA — and fans speculated they were talking about "LA Girls" singer Charlie Puth.

8.Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus got married in 1971, and three years later, they won Eurovision with ABBA.

However, they divorced in 1980, and Fältskog found it hard to stay in the band afterward. Two years later, ABBA broke up.

In her autobiography, As I Am, she wrote, "We always told the media that it was a 'happy divorce,' which of course was a front. … Obviously we all know there are no such things as happy divorces, especially when there are children involved."

9.After Gwen Stefani joined No Doubt in 1989, she started dating band member Tony Kanal.

However, their 1994 breakup sparked her creative awakening, inspiring her to write "Don't Speak" — which they performed together every night on tour.

Kanal told the Guardian, "We were on tour for Tragic Kingdom for 28 months. We were going through the breakup, and in every interview we were talking about it, so we were opening this wound on an hourly basis. It was so brutal, but I don't know how we made it through."

10.Sonic Youth band members Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore got married in 1984, then stayed together until 2011, when he had an affair.

The end of their relationship also marked the end of the band, but first, they went on one final tour through South America.

In her memoir, Girl in a Band, Kim wrote, "During rehearsal and all that week, I remember Thurston making a point of telling the band he didn’t want to perform this or that Sonic Youth song. It eventually hit me that certain songs he wanted to leave out were about [the other woman]."

11.As the Rolling Stones reached their prime, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards butted heads during meetings, rehearsals, and recording sessions.

Producer Chris Kimsey told The Sun & the Moon & the Rolling Stones writer Rich Cohen, "When we got to making [the 1983 record] Undercover, that was the worst time I’d ever experienced with them. ... I would get Mick in the studio from, like, midday until seven o'clock, then Keith from, like, nine o'clock till five in the morning. They would not be together. They specifically avoided each other."

After the band signed a new recording contract, Jagger revealed that he'd also signed a deal to make three solo albums. He also skipped a tour with the band to promote his first solo record, which eventually led to the dissolution of the group.

12.When Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan played several shows together in Japan in 1994, she complained about his personal hygiene.

She told her biographer Brian Hinton, "On the third night they stuck Bob at the mic with me and he never brushes his teeth, so his breath was like right in my face."

In 2010, she told the LA Times, "Bob is not authentic at all. He’s a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception. We are like night and day, he and I."

13.Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel became best friends when they were only 11. A few years later, they started releasing music together as Tom & Jerry.

However, Simon also released solo music, which caused a rift between the two. They parted ways in 1958 but reunited in 1963, when they decided to give music another go as Simon & Garfunkel.

Still, their relationship remained contentious because Garfunkel was never able to get over the way Simon betrayed him when they were 16.

14.And finally, John Lennon and Paul McCartney worked together closely during their time in the Beatles, even sharing credit for every song either of them wrote. They also had a friendly competition, constantly trying to one-up each other when it came to songwriting.

However, after the band's manager, Brian Epstein, died in 1967, McCartney took over as de facto leader, leaving the other members feeling like "side men."

By 1969, Lennon had had enough. He told McCartney, "I think you're daft. I wasn't going to tell you, but I'm breaking the group up."