Songwriter Heather Bright Supports Britney Spears, Blasts Justin Bieber

Becky Bain | April 5, 2011 12:03 pm

Songwriter Heather Bright, who penned the Femme Fatale track “Trouble For Me”, has written a blog post supporting Britney’s lack of songwriting skills — or rather, her goodwill of not taking songwriting credit when she isn’t responsible for writing a song. Too bad she can’t say the same thing for other pop stars!

In a blog post, Bright defends Britney (and blasts other pop stars in the process):

“I would just like to address one thing! The media is talking trash about how Britney didn’t write any of the songs on her album … HELLO! Wake up everybody! NONE OF THESE ARTISTS WRITE THEIR OWN SONGS!!!!!! (there are a few exceptions … lady gaga, will.i.am/BEP, chris brown is starting to write a lot of his own stuff … ummmm … and now I’m running out of artists). Anyway … here’s my thing … and I feel VERY passionate about this issue. Britney could have come to me, like all these other A-list artists, and said … “‘Hey, you wanna be on my album? I’m gonna need writing credit for that song AND part of your publishing even though I didn’t write anything! And then I’m gonna go on tour and gross $150 million in ticket sales and not give you any of that, even though I’m performing your song!’ “I could rattle off a laundry list of artists who I’ve had that conversation with! And I’m on the other end like … ‘Oh okay … so you wanna rape me, but just with the tip?!’ *Prince side eye* Britney’s one of the few artists I’ve worked with who didn’t try to take something that wasn’t hers. In my experience, from a business standpoint, her entire team is nothing less than a bonafide class act!”

In an additional interview with Free Wired, Bright specifies artists who aren’t as selfless when it comes to taking credit for tracks they don’t write themselves. “Rihanna takes publishing, Justin Bieber takes publishing, Kanye West takes publishing. On all the stuff that they don’t write, they take publishing.”

When Bright, who also co-wrote Justin Bieber’s hit “Somebody To Love”, is asked to explain how Bieber got songwriting credit for that song (as it was originally written for Usher), Bright has no answer. “Umm… How did he get a writing credit on it?… That’s an interesting question. I don’t know.”

Still, Bright does admit she understands why more pop artists don’t write for themselves, and it isn’t just lacking skill. “You can’t be Rihanna and be producing and writing records. You just can’t be doing that. You just won’t have time. All the appearances, the performances, and the ‘this,’ and the ‘that,’ you gotta show up to record, you gotta promote the album, go on tour. I mean, people like Lady Gaga – It’s amazing that they can find time to write! They have to write on tour, all of those artists who actually write!”

A bit of refreshing honesty, isn’t it? Does Bright insider info make you less satisfied with any of the called-out artists, or does it even matter, since Rihanna and Bieber basically get credit for any song they record, regardless of what’s written in the liner notes?

[Vulture]