“Lady Marmalade” by Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mýa and Pink (ft. Missy Elliott)
“Lady Marmalade” is the cover of a song we have already covered on this platform in its original incarnation, as dropped by Labelle back in the mid-1970s. Lyrically this remix is identical with Labelle’s version, except that features an added rap verse via Lil Kim. And what she is more or less doing, as with this song in its entirety, is celebrating the working girl lifestyle.
Or more specifically she lets it be known that everyone has their livelihood. And that of the rapper and her cohorts, most simply put, is using their feminine wiles to take money from men.
But as for the rest of the narrative, it revolves around the interactions between a john and a call girl, as inspired by the experiences of one of the writers of “Lady Marmalade”.
Facts about “Lady Marmalade”
On the the 27th of March 2001, “Lady Marmalade” was released as a single from the soundtrack album of the American movie, Moulin Rouge! The album itself was released on 23 April 2001.
The song’s original version was written by American songwriter Bob Crewe alongside fellow American writer Kenny Nolan. However, the Christina Aguilera version features writing from Lil Kim and Missy Elliot.
“Lady Marmalade” was a huge chart success for Christina, Kim, Pink, Elliot and Mya. This song not only gave them a number hit in America by topping the Hot 100, but it also gave them the same accomplishment in the United Kingdom and Australia. Other countries where this song shot to number 1 include:
- Germany
- Hungary
- Ireland
- New Zealand
- Norway
- Portugal
- Scotland
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
In America and Britain alone, “Lady Marmalade” has since its release in 2001 sold more than 2 million units. Simply put, it was one of 2001’s most successful single releases.
“Lady Marmalade” is used on the 1st episode of the 13th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. This American reality competition TV series features RuPaul finding the next drag superstar from United States.
Grammy
This song emerged winner at the 2002 Grammy Award for “Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals”. In winning this award, “Lady Marmalade” contested with the following songs:
- “Nobody Wants to Be Lonely” by Ricki Martin & Christina Aguilera
- “New York State of Mind” by Tony Bennett & Billy Joel
- “My Kind of Girl” by Brian McKnight and Justin Timberlake
- “It Wasn’t Me” by Shaggy and Rikrok
