Bowing to pressure from radio station programmers here in the US, it is being reported that Britney Spears has been forced to re-record her song If You Seek Amy to make it less controversial for radio play. When sung, the line All of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek Amy sounds like she is saying All of the boys and all of the girls are begging to F.U.C.K. me … which censors are none too pleased about. As a result, Brit reportedly re-recorded the song to leave the K off of the word seek:
Britney Spears has reportedly been forced to rerecord her forthcoming single after radio stations threatened to ban it from play. The controversial ‘If U Seek Amy’, set to be the third single from her Circus LP, contains the chorus “All of the boys and all of the girls are beggin’ to, If You Seek Amy”, which, when sung quickly, sounds like “F.U.C.K me”. Last week, several US radio stations threatened to boycott the song after deeming the lyrics to be too offensive for air. According to The Sun, Spears has since returned to the studio to rerecord the track, removing the “k” from the end of “seek” and renaming the song ‘If U See Amy’. Britney releases her new single ‘Circus’ in the UK on February 18.
Boo! This is kinda ridiculous. While I can appreciate that radio censors are trying to “protect” young listeners from hearing profanity on the radio, I feel it is a but over-the-top to censor the spelling of bad words. If she were actually saying the word FUCK then I can understand the need to censor … but if we’ve decided that we need to censor the spelling of words, then that’s a bit too much of an infringement of free speech I think. I’m not surprised that Britney is deciding to comply with this censorship … but I, for one, think it takes things a bit too far.
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Trent I totally agree with you!
Umm we can give free condoms away to promote safe sex at Plan Parenthood, but Britney can’t say “If You Seek Amy”? What the fuck?
Wow. I didn’t get it at first until I had to read the lines “If you seek Amy” over and over. Now that I finally understand.. I think it’s ridiculous.
i hate censorship. I thought this song was so brilliant. So tongue in cheek. And now it doesn’t make sense.
I was sure that they wrote this song to be “tongue-in-cheek” and get one over the censors, but I was extremely surprised that they picked this song to be her 3rd single!
I mean, it’s cute and all, but it’s definitely not the 3rd best song from her CD!!
I agree with you Selina. IMHO the only thing the song had going for it was the “tongue-in-cheek” chorus and now not only does it not make sense but it isn’t even very catchy and definitely not the next best song on the cd. Amnesia is still my favorite (I know, I know, it’s just a bonus track) and Unusual You is really good too!
Um, who listens to radio anymore? So does it really matter?
This is old hash.She stole this idea from a Canadian Band called April Wine who had North American success in the 70′s and 80′s. The song was Called “If You See Kay”(Tell her that I want her) It got A.M. airplay until the lyrics were realized and now it is only played on F.M.
Boo is right! That was a cool effin song just the way it was…you could sing it around your mother and grandmother and they never would have caught on.
if she had to re-record, she didnt actually re-record from scratch.
studio recordings are not single takes, they are tons of parts put together, if they had to go thru and cut out all the word “seek” its easy, just redo that one line and substitute it in.
I agree, I think it’s ridiculous to censor a song because the words sound like something else. Clearly the words as written aren’t even profanity so what’s the big deal. I dj at a skating rink and I can tell you that kids know the words to the cd version of songs and don’t really care what’s being said as long as the song has a good beat or the chorus is a catchy one. It amazes me that she has to do this.
@ your destiny
i seriously doubt britney stole the idea from an irrelevant canadian band who were supposedly “successful” before she was even born. what you meant to say is that the idea has been done before.
@Kelly and some others….there’s a big difference between kids hearing swearing (which most probably do) and actually singing the words to a song. I”m no prude at all, but I don’t think it’s funny when my kid sings suggestive lyrics in songs. Thankfully we have Triple J for that and we don’t have to listen to it on mainstream radio.
I actually agree with this, for all she is spelling it in a cutesy way she is definitely swearing in this song. The sentence doesn’t make sense grammatically, so there’s no other way to interpret it. And since you cant “read” the way she is spelling it when you hear it on the radio, it leaves no doubt as to what she is saying.
This is silly i agree, people need to pull there heads out there ASSES there are bigger issues going on in the world. Censorship sucks and hopefully now that we have a new president things will change and maybe freedom of speech and artistic expression will be okay again
@Jennie- you think Obama is going to make it so people can swear on the radio?
Geez, a bit over the top with the censorship there, im pretty sure ive heard worse songs on the radio where they get all extra graphic and stuff. Arent there more important things to worry about these days?? And pretty sure nobody really listens to the radio anymore, so whatev’s
So lemme get this straight – it’s okay for the guy in Saving Abel to sing about someone going down on him, but Britney can’t allude to a word that not everyone will even get?
I am so over the FCC.
She does not have to change a thing. Pop radio could just do us a favor and not play the single in the first place. Either way it’s fine with me. Are we now going to have to listen to that stupid queen screaming “DON”T CENSOR BRITNEY! LEAVE HER ALONE!”? LOL. I know you love her Trent but really now. No one is making Brit do anything. Not to mention all the great publicity this story as brought to her. None of this seems fishy? Really? No, fo realz. None? OK. ;)
I am generally against censorship, but I think it is total bullshit that brittney and her people tried to pull this.
It isnt “tongue in cheek” they recorded a song wherre she spells the word fuck then titled it to try and get by the censors “all the boys and all the girls are begging to f u c k me” makes sense as a sentence/lyric “all of the boys and all the girls are begging to if you seek amy” is complete jibberish she just spelled fuck and thought nobody would care.
People may not like FCC censorship but the regulations are set by lawmakers we voted into office. Stations have the right to broadcast it uncensored but will have to pay fines, like comedy central does when they let south park say shit