How many pop divas to take to remake “Lady Marmalade”?
In 1975, Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash, performing as Labelle, turned the risqué (for its time) funk potboiler into one of the decade’s most distinctive hits, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a week that March.
Twenty-six years later, four of the brashest stars of the 2000s, Christina Aguilera, P!nk, Lil’ Kim and Mya, plus Missy Elliott (who produced the track with Rockwilder and Ron Fair and raps on it), rerecorded “Lady” and duplicated its chart success atop the Hot 100.
The remake, which was featured on the soundtrack to the Baz Luhrmann-directed musical film Moulin Rouge!, spent its first of five weeks at No. 1 on the June 2, 2001, Hot 100. The song also won the Grammy Award for best pop collaboration with vocals in 2002, and its burlesque-style music video (with a cameo by Elliott) won video of the year at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards.
Written by Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan (and inspired by New Orleans sex workers), “Lady Marmalade” is one of nine songs to top the Hot 100 in both its original iteration and reworked form; the latter’s lyrics were altered slightly to fit the movie’s premise. The track became Lil’ Kim and Mya’s first (and, so far, sole) Hot 100 No. 1, P!nk’s first of four and Aguilera’s fourth of five.
Twenty years later, no song credited to four women has since topped the Hot 100. Five entries each by a trio of women have since hit the top 10, most recently Ariana Grande’s “34+35,” featuring Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion, in January 2021.
