The No. 1 Song On August 22, 1998 Sounds Even Fresher Today

"The Boy Is Mine" by Brandy and Monica was well established as the No. 1 song on Billboard Hot 100 by August 22, 1998. As melodramatic and playful as it is slick and cool, the influential R&B mega-hit duet was in the final weeks of an epic 13-week run at the top of the pop chart. Designed to look like a musician feud that got out of hand, "The Boy Is Mine" is lyrically cutting but musically gorgeous, as the two vocally gifted superstars blended their voices expertly to create a high school hit that every teen of the '90s will forever remember. It's also a meta acknowledgment and send-up of a perceived rivalry between Brandy and Monica, in which they fight over some guy who's been caddishly two-timing them both.

"The Boy Is Mine" was conceived as a gender-flipped, late '90s reimagining of "The Girl Is Mine," the 1982 team-up between Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson. However, the newer take would prove to be a much bigger smash. Here's the real story behind a fight song for the ages, "The Boy Is Mine" by Brandy and Monica.

Despite all the machinations behind making "The Boy Is Mine" a piece for two singers, Brandy tried to make it a solo project, writing the tune with a team of writers. "We wanted to make the song an event, and we thought the only person who could pull it off was Monica," Brandy admitted in Fred Bronson's "The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits." "I sang the entire song by myself and I didn't like it by myself." 

And that's when Monica got involved. With the music industry of the 1990's being as messed-up as it was, the stars were falsely perceived as bitter rivals. "We took the song and brought humor to a situation that people had tried to make so serious," Monica said. "... we thought it would be really funny to show us feuding in the video and then come together at the end, because we wanted people to let go of the idea of us not liking each other."

"The Boy Is Mine" was more successful than anything Brandy and Monica had done alone to that point. It spent 13 weeks at No. 1, and it marked the first time that Brandy or Monica topped the chart. The tune then won Brandy and Monica their only Grammy Award to date, for best R&B performance by a duo or group with vocals. The pair toured together in 2025, and after a set of the singers alternating their hits, they closed out the shows with their mutual smash.