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In 2005, Amerie released her second album, Touch, which features the song “1 Thing.” Fans still love the song, but Amerie nearly lost the chance to release it. She shared a label with Jennifer Lopez, and they thought Lopez might be able to have more success with the song. To prevent this from happening, Amerie said she released her version without permission.

Amerie leaked a song before Jennifer Lopez could take it

At the end of 2004, Amerie was an up-and-coming artist, while Lopez was a longtime star. As a result, Columbia Records believed Lopez might have more success with “1 Thing,” which Amerie had already recorded. She realized she had to step in to stop them.

“‘1 Thing’ came out in 2004 because I leaked it over Christmas,” she said on The Joe Budden Podcast (per The Daily Mail). “Because everybody would be on break so they can’t stop anything.”

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She already worried the label would drop her, so she felt she had nothing to lose. All that mattered to her was getting the song out to people.

“I don’t really care about getting paid for it,” she said. “I just want people to hear it because I believe in it.”

This wasn’t all bad news for Lopez, though. “1 Thing” producer Rich Harrison worked with Lopez on the song “Get Right,” which had a similar sound.

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