Brandy and Monica Are Back and Doing Better Than Ever

Brandy and Monica Are Back and Doing Better Than Ever

By Eleanor Jacobs
Oct 03, 2025

The internet was in need of a kind reminder that “The Boy Is Mine” is not about Ethan Slater.

Brandy and Monica have officially set aside their feud and are joining forces for their joint “The Boy Is Mine” North American tour, which was announced in June and begins on Oct. 16. In a recent cover story with Essence, the two shared that the collaboration was an excuse for them to reconnect – now as further renowned musicians with families and legacies – to work it out on the remix for the sake of something great.

The GRAMMY award-winning pop-R&B classic was released in 1998, a collaboration between two artists that ran in parallel circles for their fanbases and musical styles. 17-year-old artist-actress Brandy had debuted with a self-titled record that garnered two GRAMMY nominations; Monica, 18, was a Georgia native riding the high of her debut hip-hop soul album Miss Thang. The women’s dueling high harmonies overscore an addictively bassy, marching track, which depicts a now-iconic romantic spat.

Their tune made it to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in the second week after its release, and remained there for 13 weeks. The song also served as the lead single for both artists’ subsequent sophomore albums, Brandy’s Never Say Never and Monica’s The Boy is Mine.

But the rise of two young black female vocalists not only sparked an industry-enforced pressure to collaborate, but for comparison and conflict. Driven by reported miscommunications and the tension of comparison, a feud between the artists culminated in an altercation ahead of their performance at the 1998 MTV Music Video Awards. It was an altercation in the shadow of the track’s success.

The decades since have not been entirely void of connection between the two – In 2012, Brandy and Monica released “It All Belongs to Me,” the first collaboration since their falling out. This was followed up by a 2020 joint appearance on the Timbaland and Swizz Beatz-led web series Verzuz, where they engaged in DJ battles showcasing the best of their previous work. Their original hit rode a new wave of popularity in 2024 after Ariana Grande covered “The Boy is Mine” on her album eternal sunshine, and the duo featured on a remix of it later that year.

Monica put it perfectly in their Essence interview. “I think that even though the lyrical content and some of what started to play out created more division than it did togetherness, we’ve taken control of that, and we’re making what the legacy of this song would be totally different for the next generation.”

Image via Getty

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