so true. aguilera is guilty of the same thing too.

People should check out the original songwriter's version of this song, BC Jean. She does a very good job with it, doesnt oversing it at all, and I think sings it better than Beyonce becuz she shows some real emotion and soul in it. No screaming, just singing. She really does justice to this song but I guess that's becuz she's the one who wrote the song in the first place
http://www.bcjean.net./

You know, the more I think about this, the more I realize just how fitting it was for Beyonce to play the character Deena Jones in "Dreamgirls". Beyonce is like the real life Dreamgirl in that she started out in a girl group who became the breakout star with the mainstream crossover appeal and achieved superstardom. And where Deena had Jamie Foxx's ruthless character to push her (or pimp her--depending on how you wanna look at it), to her huge level of success, Beyonce has her ruthless father doing the same thing for her. Jamie Foxx's character made Deena Jones the lead singer of the "Dreamettes" and the group basically turned into the Deena Jones + 2 other girls group.

When Matthew became the manager for Destiny's Child, he made sure the focus was put on Beyonce and it basically turned into the "Beyonce's Child" group
Jamie Foxx's character (sorry I forget his name lol) did shady things and made good use of the Payolla system to get the Dreamettes songs lots of airplay on the radio. And we've heard some of the things that Matthew Knowles has done in getting his daughter the hit songs and airplay on the radio.
However in the movie, Deena was pretty naive about the shady stuff Jamie's character was doing--but what about Beyonce?

Is she all that naive and unaware of what her dad is doing for her career? I dont think so. She has to be aware about at least some of the stuff that's gone down. And just like Jaime's character was pushin for Deena to do that "Cleopatra Jones" film, I'm sure some of those movie deals, endorsment deals, awards "won", that spread in the Sports Illustrated issue and other stuff has happend because of daddy Knowles. And I cant help but wonder why all of a sudden Beyonce is releasing a 2-disc set, with 2 singles and videos released simultaneously. What's the big rush? Was this papa Knowles' plan to compete with the release of Michelle Williams release of her new album? Is that what all this is all about? (thinks about when Jamie's character took Effie's song "One Night Only", had Deena re-record it and had it released on radio before Effie's version hit the airwaves) Very interesting how life imitates art in this one.

http://www.foxnews.com/st...,00.html#2
Beyonce’s ‘Stolen’ New Hit Record

Last week I raved and raved about Beyonce’s new single, "If I Were A Boy." Remember? I thought it was the best thing she’d ever done, and was amazed that she’d even found the material.

Well, guess what? The story behind "If I Were A Boy" is absolutely scandalous. It also explains my question of why this single missed the Grammy deadline of September 30th, since it was ready to go at least 3 weeks ago. The answer: it was held up by endless legal wrangling since, in the long hallowed tradition of the music business, the young woman who wrote the melody and lyrics for "If I Were A Boy" had no idea Beyonce had even recorded her song until a stranger called with the news. By then, it was too late.

BC Jean is a hot, up-and-coming 21 year old female singer songwriter from San Diego. Those who’ve met her says she’s smart and "gorgeous." But BC (her initials, legend has it, are for "beautiful child") got a cold dose of reality this summer when it comes to the record business. According to sources, she and her manager/mother have been strong-armed by Beyonce’s people and others who saw gold in "If I Were A Boy" and didn’t care how they got it.

You can hear BC Jean’s version of her own song, written with German pop-factory producer Toby Gad, at www.bcjean.net. It’s certainly as good as Beyonce’s if not better. It’s no wonder that this young woman is now the center of so much attention.

Altogether, I am told, BC Jean wrote and recorded about a dozen songs with producer Gad for an album the producer was planning to make of his own. When the deal fell apart, Gad — whose 300 plus credits are all co-written, never solo — took the songs and started marketing them to big name, established artists. Gad’s past "collaborators" include Fergie, on "Big Girls Don’t Cry."

Besides Beyonce, Gad brought at least one of the songs to Disney for "Hannah Montana" star Miley Cyrus. But Disney wanted the lyrics changed to be age appropriate. BC Jean refused. For now, Miley and Gad have been rebuffed.

When I wrote about Beyonce’s version of "If I Were a Boy" last week, calls came pouring in from people who knew the real history of this story. BC Jean’s mother/manager, Lori Carlson, told me she couldn’t comment on the situation. But plenty of people knew the saga of Beyonce’s legendary manager/father Mathew Knowles’s aggressive pursuit of the publishing rights to the potential hit record. His goal was to get the rights to the song and to put Beyonce’s name on the writing credits.

The Carlsons, I’m told, recently came to terms with Beyonce, after enduring the kind of record biz terrors that would curl the hair of the guys from "Hit Men." Now "If I Were A Boy" is hitting big time. Part of the deal, my sources insist, is that the two singers will duet on BC Jean’s debut album once she gets her own recording deal. Right now, managers, publishers, and A&R people from all over the industry are falling over themselves trying to sign BC Jean. They should be. She seems to be the real deal, a potential artist with a big career looming in front of her. It’s a shame that this is the way she had to find out about the record business.

BC Jean’s story is an old one that dates back to Elvis Presley and continues ‘til today. The larger issue, of course, is that performers who don’t write their own music get no royalty when their records are played on the radio. That’s why a Performance Royalty Act is being pushed in Congress right now, and why songwriters should back it. Artists wouldn’t be looking to muscle in on their business if they were paid appropriately. Beyonce simply falls into a category that also includes Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett as well as Sam Moore and Judy Collins, each of whom testified in front of Congress about this last year.

And by the way: BC Jean’s story is pretty common. I’d love to hear from all the other songwriters out there who’ve been ripped off just in the last year. The back stories of how records get made, how big stars who don’t write their own music wind up with hit material, are always hell raisers.


Ya know I was suspicious of how much of this song she actually wrote too.

Funny how that url doesn't work anymore

It's Fox news...the guy is notoriously wrong and always looking for scandal.

[color=darkred]The documentary I saw on Destiny's Child was that all the girls KNEW from the door and it was in their contracts that Beyonce was to do everything and the other girls were to be in the background... everybody knew that when they signed contracts.... that's why the group is called 'Destiny's CHILD' (Beyoncè) not 'Destiny's Children' .. it was always about Beyoncè and I always said that Beyoncè represented the 'Deena Jones' in the music business (all light skinned singers that some can't sing being pushed to the front), and Jennifer Hudson represented the 'Effie Whites' (dark skinned singers, who can sing that aren't promoted enough) in the business. [/color]

Very interesting But didnt Destiny's Child start out at first having a different manager other than Papa Knowles? I thought they had someone else as they're manager at first and then Matthew became the manager at some point. I thought I'd read that somewhere...plus it seemed to me when DC first came out, it was Beyonce AND Kelly who were the lead singers of the group--and all the girls pretty much got equal airtime in their music videos. But when Matthew took over the group, it seemed like the focus really shifted to Beyonce and the other girls (Kelly included) were regulated to being the backup singers. Maybe its just me, but it seemed like when Matthew took over, Beyonce became the focus of the group whereas before DC seemed more like a group and less like the vehicle to launch Beyonce's career as a superstar.

Well he wasnt wrong on this one because you can go right to that songwriter's website and hear her version of the song And that url still works btw, the story is still there.