Britney Spears
Will.i.am insisted on three months of monthly lunches with Britney Spears before they recorded a single note together. He wanted to understand her goals and what her audience needed to hear. A low-quality version of "Work Bitch" leaked one day before the planned radio premiere in September 2013. Rather than delay the release, Spears pushed it out immediately, which happened to be precisely the message of the song itself. It debuted at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, her fifth-highest chart entry at the time, and gave her a substantial writing credit on a lead single for the first time in years.
In our deep dive into Work Bitch, we trace the song from three months of lunches to a leak that forced a premature launch, and what it reveals about an artist who found a way to make a comeback entirely on her own terms.
