3 Giant Pop Songs That Were Almost Recorded by Someone Else

There are a lot of what-ifs when it comes to the world of popular music. For every song that comes out into the public, there are about a billion behind-the-scenes machinations that go on to bring it to the forefront. Sometimes that means a song rarely got recorded. Sometimes that means another artist was this close to recording a song before it found its actual performer.

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We wanted to examine three examples of the latter. Here are three times a song went on to be a global smash, but it almost was recorded by someone else. Because with any success story, a little bit of luck is always involved. Indeed, these are three giant pop songs that were almost recorded by somebody else!

“Pretty Hurts” by Beyoncé from ‘Beyoncé’ (2014)

Written by the prolific songwriter-turned-pop star Sia, this track was first presented to Katy Perry. But when Sia never heard back from the “Roar” singer, she turned to two other big-name artists: Rihanna and Beyoncé. The two glamorous performers both put bids on the pop tune, and Rihanna even had the inside track on the song. But Sia found herself waiting too long and at the 11th hour, Queen B’s team “slid into home base and threw the money down,” Sia explained to ABC News. The transaction was “really awkward” according to Sia, but in the end, it was a win-win for her and Beyoncé, who saw the tune hit No. 1 on the Billboard US Dance Club Songs.

“Shape Of You” by Ed Sheeran from ‘÷’ (2017)

Speaking of the Fenty frontwoman, Rihanna was approached by the British-born pop star Ed Sheeran after he wrote the tune “Shape of You”. But soon, Sheeran realized this was a song RiRi would likely pass on. He realized that even if the song, in a broad sense, would work for her, some of the more specific lyrics wouldn’t be on brand for the now-billionaire. So, Sheeran went another direction and decided to sing the song on his own. “We sort of decided halfway through that we were just going to make it for me,” he told BBC Radio 1. With over six billion streams on YouTube alone, it seems like Sheeran made the right decision.

“We Can’t Stop” by Miley Cyrus from ‘Bangerz’ (2013)

Does everyone think of Rihanna when they write pop songs? Well, in many ways, it would seem so. Because RiRi was approached about this song, too, which she decided to turn down. “When I originally worked on ‘We Can’t Stop’, we [did] it for Rihanna. The idea was more towards Rihanna,” producer Mike WiLL Made-It explained to MTV News. But RiRi had other ideas, he added. “Rihanna, she heard ‘Pour It Up’ right away, and she didn’t even hear ‘We Can’t Stop’.” So the next stop was crossover singer Miley Cyrus, known for her work in pop and country. She took on the track and made it a hit, and the rest is history.

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