Uncover Major Songs That Were Originally Sung by Other Artists

This may come as a surprise, but some of your favorite songs were originally recorded by other artists!

Selena Gomez, Camila Cabello and more are among some of the biggest names in the music industry who originally lent their vocals to some pretty major hits. Over the years, these demo versions of certain songs have been leaked online, and fans are seriously shook when the audio clips go viral.

In fact, “The Middle” rose to popularity after its release in February 2018. Before the official version with vocals by Maren Morris was released, at least 12 other major names lent vocals to the song, according to Variety. In April 2018, the publication reported that Camila, Demi Lovato, Anne-Marie, Carly Rae Jepsen, Tove Lo, Bishop Briggs, Bebe Rexha, Lauren Jauregui, Daya and Elle King were among the singers who recorded demo versions of the smash hit.

“The lyrics took on a whole new meaning when Maren sang,” Stefan Johnson, a member of the Monsters & Strangerz production team told Variety at the time. “All of a sudden, you believe it. The taps are running. Dishes are broken. It sounded a little Nashville and felt right. We were pumped.”

Another song that surprisingly could have gone to someone else was One Direction‘s “Little Things.” After the group released the single in 2012, it was revealed that Ed Sheeran actually wrote and recorded the tune before it was passed along to the British boy band. “I was in the studio with the One Direction boys at the time and I was playing it and they were like, ‘We really like that,'” the “Don’t” crooner recalled while talking to CapitalFM in October 2012. “I think they just wanted to try something different. I think they did the same formula with the last single — it sounded like a One Direction song — and now I think they want to switch it up a bit.”

Ed continued, “It’s got one of my favorite lines that I’ve ever written in a song … Harry says, ‘I know you never like the sound of your voice on tape and you never like to know how much you weigh and you still have to squeeze into your jeans but you’re perfect to me.'”

As 1D fans know, the red-headed musician has collaborated with the boys a ton over the years! Wondering what other popular songs were recorded by other notable names? Scroll through our gallery to uncover them all.

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‘R.E.M’

Before it was Ariana Grande‘s song, this track actually belonged to Beyoncé and it was titled “Wake Up.”

“It’s an entirely new song now but the hook was so dreamy,” Ariana explained when asked about the song in June 2018 on Twitter. “It had to find a home, I think it’ll be one of your favs.”

According to an October 2021 TikTok from rapper T-Pain, he actually had the song in 2011, before both stars, and it was called “Dream.”

‘Anyone’

Justin Bieber released this song in January 2021 and it immediately blew up. In February 2021, a snippet of Camila singing the song was leaked online. According to Genius, the song was initially supposed to be released on a deluxe version of Camila’s album Romance as the song title “appears in the poster that comes inside the CD.”

‘Love Yourself’

Similarly, Ed wrote this popular song for Justin. Although no studio version has been released just yet, the “Lego House” singer covered the tune in March 2017.

“That was a song I had written for Divide. It just wouldn’t have made it,” Ed shared during a January 2017 radio interview. “And then Justin took it and did his thing on it and released it as a single and made it what it is.

‘Cold Water’

This Justin song was originally written and recorded by Ed as well.

“It was a song I must’ve half-written somewhere at a time where I was writing a lot of songs,” Ed recalled during a January 2017 interview. “I got the email from Diplo just being like, ‘Yo! That ‘Cold Water’ song is dope! Can I have it?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.'”