In case you haven’t heard the world is freaking out about a supposed leaked demo of Britney Spears singing “Telephone” after Lady GaGa penned it for her. While we will not know till someone comes forth with the truth of this story, much of the discourse on this leak is missing the knowledge of a common studio practice.
Often times when a songwriter is penning a song for a star they will have a session vocalist sing a imitation of the way that star sings. I have done countless sessions that have done this and seen talented singers go from Rhianna to Mariah in the time it takes to open a different session file. This is a common practice in trying to show an artist how easy it would be for them to make it a hit. I have even heard some imitations so dead on you would swear it was the artist they were demoing for.
To go even further, it is common practice to leave the imitation vocal in as a double for layering in the final mix. It has happened many times in many successful songs. So before we all go around having our minds blown over this whole Brit/GaGa thing, let’s remember if GaGa wrote the song for Britney, odds are she had someone sing it just like her (if not herself) and that is what we are hearing, not actually the “real” Britney Spears.