For years, it was speculated that Christina Milian had some kind of beef with Jennifer Lopez. The two artists never spoke publicly about it themselves. However, the online community quickly rumored that JLo had screwed Christina over in the early 2000s.
According to American Songwriter, Christina actually co-wrote Play, one of JLo’s singles from her hit 2001 album, J.Lo. The song peaked at number 18 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and picked up a Teen Choice Award for best dance track of the year.
RELATED: Ben Affleck and JLo Are Falling Apart
Christina’s voice can actually be heard on the song’s chorus. Although she was credited as a co-writer, she wasn’t given a feature credit for her singing contribution. This is something that didn’t sit well with some of her followers.
A number of online users have expressed their outrage on social media and community forums. One Reddit user wrote: “Milian does get credit for the background vocals, but being that she wrote the song and sung most of it, you would think she would get more recognition.” On a different Reddit discussion about JLo’s credibility as a singer, a user claimed that artists like Christina and Ashanti were the original singers of some of her songs.
Christina Denies the Feud Rumors
But what does Christina think about all of it? In 2023, she cleared the air about how she really felt about JLo and her work on the song Play. In her exclusive interview to Page Six, she explained that there wasn’t an ongoing feud between her and JLo.
Christina praised JLo for what she did with the song, which was originally intended to be on her own LP. She said that hands down, JLo nailed it. She was so good, and Christina loved that song.
Instead of being jealous that Play was taken away from her, Christina revealed that she was amazed that she got to be credited for writing a song for one of the biggest artists at the time. She said: “I couldn’t believe at 19 years old I wrote a song for J.Lo.”
RELATED: JLo Blamed for TikToker’s Death
In her interview, she shared that she actually came up with the song the same week that she was working on her successful debut single, AM to PM. According to Christina, it didn’t even take her more than a half hour to write the song.
When explaining how she came up with the lyrics, she said that she went to bed late after a night of partying, woke up the next morning and had to go to the studio. She had the track and hadn’t written anything to it.
When played the track, the melody of the first verse just began to flow out of her. Christina confessed that it was just too easy to write at that moment.
JLo Mistook Christina for an Assistant
She wrote the song in about 15 minutes. Christina added that it was a joke to her because she’d just started to become a writer.
At the time, Christina was signed with Def Soul Records. She didn’t think that they would want two party songs for her debut album. While she was happy with how Play had turned out, she preferred the song AM to PM.
So how did Play end up on JLo’s sophomore album?
Christina said that Play made its way to Tommy Mottola, the previous Chairman and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment. Once he heard it, he reportedly snagged the track for his star songstress who was signed to one of his company’s labels, Epic Records.
Christina explained that the next thing she knew, she was in New York. JLo was recording the song, and Christina came in to help rewrite some of the stuff.
An online user on an ATRL forum claimed that they’d once heard Christina say that JLo allegedly had no idea that she was the writer and she mistook her for an assistant. She was reportedly nice to her and offered to buy her a coffee.
Christina Doesn’t Care About Having a Feature Credit
During her interview, Christina opened up about how she had no hard feelings about not being credited as a featured artist on the song. She commented on how it was funny that people still talked about about her singing on the song with Jennifer.
She added that she had background singers on some of her songs. It was no different than Michael Jackson having background singers on songs or Britney Spears. To her, that was what music was made of.
It was good to have a blend of voices, it made songs better. Christina said: “I don’t need a feature credit, I’m on the credits for whatever nature, as a writer and for singing backgrounds. There is credit for that.”
She also shared that she was just so happy that Jlo did it because she was an icon. She admitted that she would still sing songs like Play and AM to PM when she had karaoke night with her husband, musician Matt Pokora.
Justin Beiber Also Owes Some of His Success to Christina
Play wasn’t the only song that Christina wrote for another famous artist. According to American Songwriter, she also co-wrote the song Walk Away (Remember Me) for the then up-and-coming artist Paula DeAnda in 2006.
One of the biggest songs she’s ever helped write has got to be the 2010 song Baby by Justin Bieber. She was part of a team of course. She co-penned the track alongside Justin, Ludacris, Christopher “Tricky” Stewart, and her ex husband, The Dream.
Christina even talked about the song in a recent interview with Elle. After the interviewer pointed out that the song had had a bit of a revival, after Justin announced that he and his wife Hailey Bieber were expecting, Christina shared how she honestly felt about the single she’d helped create over a decade ago. She said that when she heard the finished song, she knew that it was going to live on forever.
Christina is just one of many celebrities that JLo has been rumored to have had an alleged feud with. There’ve been so many over the years, and 2024 hasn’t been an exception.
JLo’s History of Feuds
Ayo Edebiri, who is known for her role on the hit show The Bear, was said to be feuding with JLo after some comments she’d made about her and her singing abilities. Deadline reported that in 2020, Ayo went on Laci Mosley’s podcast, Scam Goddess, and talked about how JLo’s singing career had been one long scam.
Ayo claimed that JLo thought that she’d been on multiple tracks, but it wasn’t her. She alleged that she wasn’t singing for most of her songs.
She said:“A lot of the write-ups of the songs will be like, ‘J.Lo didn’t have time to make it to the studio.’ Like, ‘J.Lo was busy.’ Doing what? Not singing, obviously.”
In 2024, those comments came back to haunt Ayo when she was booked to host Saturday Night Live. The musical guest was JLo.
Before the show began, JLo told Variety that Ayo came to her dressing room to apologise for what she’d said. She said that Ayo was mortified and very sweet.
She apologized with tears in her eyes, saying how terrible it was that she had said those things. Ayo even addressed the situation in one of her SNL sketches when her character said: “It’s wrong to leave mean comments, or post comments just for clout, or run your mouth on a podcast, and you don’t consider the impact because you’re 24 and stupid.”
Ayo talked about the incident in an interview with Vanity Fair later on in the year. She shared that the media’s allegations about how her podcast clip had started an alleged fight between her and JLo were ridiculous. She joked that it would be like Mr. Bean and Mick Jagger beefing, and that she was obviously Mr. Bean.
