Ariana Grande’s new video for her song “The Boy Is Mine” features surprise cameos from none other than Brandy and Monica, who memorably released a hit song of the same name in 1998.
Shortly after the music video was released Friday, Grande expressed her love for the R&B singers and her gratitude for their participation, writing in an Instagram story: “you have no idea what this means … [to] me. i am still convinced that i am dreaming it all.”
She added in a follow-up post, “i am still crying.”
The video begins by showing rats jumping onto a panicking sanitation worker outside before the scene switches to Grande at home bottling a potion, as a TV news report is heard in the background.
Brandy and Monica then appear as news anchors who inform viewers that the mayor (played by Penn Badgley) is set to hold a press conference, following an election campaign that promised to bring “immediate change to the city.”
“Here’s his chance to put his money where his mouth is,” Brandy says about the mayor. (Check out the music video below.)
Grande’s version of “The Boy Is Mine” is featured on her latest album, “Eternal Sunshine,” which came out in March.
Brandy and Monica’s beloved 1998 duet spent 13 weeks at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 the year it was released. The song earned the pair a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal.
In a March interview on Apple Music 1’s “The Zane Lowe Show,” Grande said that her take on “The Boy Is Mine” is a “bad girl anthem.”
“I’ve always wanted to reimagine that song in some kind of way,” she said at the time.
“There is a large group of my fans that really — they do love a bad girl anthem,” she added.