*Fifteen years ago today, Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” began its staggering 10 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, en route to becoming 2007’s most successful single. But would the break-up anthem have been as successful through the pipes of Faith Hill or Shania Twain, as songwriter Ne-Yo had originally envisioned?
“Irreplaceable” was famously inspired by Ne-Yo’s aunt and her response to an unfaithful ex-boyfriend who had come back to get his stuff. “I remember him coming to the house, and him looking in the closet and going, ‘Where’s my this, where’s my that?,'” recalled Ne-Yo on an episode of VH1’s Behind The Music. “And she said, ‘Oh, in the box to the left of the closet. Everything you own is in that box and everything I bought is over here.'”
Below, Ne-Yo explains why his aunt was initially unhappy with “Irreplaceable,” and her “business being in the street.”
Ne-Yo has said he wrote “Irreplaceable” as more of a country song, with Hill or Twain in mind to belt it over the Stargate-produced track. Even when the tune eventually ended up with Beyonce, the Destiny’s Child alum reportedly wasn’t feeling the drum beat. So Stargate went back to the lab and reworked the percussion, then resubmitted the track to Bey.
The rest is herstory.
“Irreplaceable” may not have ended up with Faith Hill or Shania Twain as originally intended, but folks did get a chance to hear how it would sound as a country record when Sugarland put their ukelele two-step twang on it at the 2007 American Music Awards, with surprise guest Beyonce joining lead singer Jennifer Nettles halfway through the hoedown.
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