Heidi Montag spent some time on the podcast Unpopular recalling past grievances from her time on The Hills. Of course, the show put Heidi, Whitney Port, and nemesis Lauren Conrad on the map and all three took advantage of the fame to branch off into other careers. Whitney and Lauren continued their success in the fashion industry, while Heidi tried to launch a music career.
In 2009, Heidi recorded the song Fashion under the watch of producer, RedOne, also known as Nadir Khayat. The song did not lead to a lucrative music career, and the 35-year-old mother of one believes that Lady Gaga is to blame. Here’s the backstory, according to the Dailymail. Lady Gaga was just starting off in the industry when she made a brief appearance on The Hills in the same year. Both stars were working with RedOne as well.
Heidi explained, “[RedOne] and I were going to pair up and we were going to do what him and Lady Gaga ended up doing, which is writing every song together and producing.” Indeed, Lady Gaga was the one that wrote Heidi’s hit song Fashion. And it seemed clear that the award winning artist had the upper hand over Heidi from the beginning.
Heidi’s producer pushed her to record the song, and worked out the logistics between The Hills star and Gaga. She explained, “he was like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna cut Fashion with Heidi. I have her in the studio, she loves it.”
Heidi continued, “He was like, ‘I just need to get the consent of the writer,’ and so I just thought Lady Gaga was a writer, because she was a writer on the song.” Lady Gaga agreed to the arrangement, “Great. Sure, she can have that song,” Heidi recalled her saying.
With all logistics attended to, Heidi, “recorded it and it was my song. That was the impression I was under.” Indeed, Heidi presented the song during a prior appearance on The View.
It was that exposure, Heidi claimed, that influenced Lady Gaga to reclaim the song and record it for the 2009 film Confessions of a Shopaholic soundtrack. “It’s hard because people are like, ‘I love Lady Gaga!’” Heidi opined, “And I’m like, ‘I’m sure she’s great but I have not had the best encounter with her.’”
To add insult to injury, Lady Gaga made a connection with Heidi’s nemesis Lauren while filming the show. Heidi called the singer out on it during a phone call post-filming, “I talked to her on the phone for a second and she was like, ‘I just filmed with Lauren and Whitney on The Hills,‘ she sniped, “I was like, ‘Who is this girl? What is happening? She’s a hater, clearly!’”
That phone call only served to worsen Heidi’s situation as she claimed Lady Gaga then used her influence to stop further collaboration between Heidi and RedOne. The Hills: New Beginnings cast member alleged, “She did not want me working with RedOne and she told RedOne she wouldn’t work with him anymore if I kept working with him. And he’s like, ‘I’m sorry. She’s my writing partner for huge things.’ We even went out to dinner with him several times and we were hanging out with him and she pulled the cord.”
Well, the entertainment industry is a cutthroat business. But if Heidi’s allegations are true, then was it just competition for Lady Gaga or was there another reason for her to “sabotage” her rival’s career? Heidi insinuated that Lady Gaga did it out of malice as well. She opined that Lady Gaga, “obviously liked Lauren and was excited to film with her. That would obviously make you not a Heidi fan!”
“And I was in the studio with her producer before she came out,” Heidi continued, “so I think she saw that RedOne is one of the biggest and best producers and writers and if he takes Heidi that’s taking my magic. He wrote Just Dance for her, he wrote almost every song with her and produced it. So of course she’s not going to want to share that when at that moment I was a potential rival for what she was doing.”
Back in September 2009, RedOne was gushing about his plans for Heidi, including producing a debut album. “I’m writing and producing her whole album,” he said at the time, “we are going to do it big. She finally found someone she connected with- me. It’s all about the connection. When it doesn’t work with an artist, it doesn’t work. With her, it’s perfect. You can tell in the music that we connect.”
“I definitely think she’s a star,” RedOne continued, “she has a star quality – a power personality with no limits. She can do anything and make it sound credible. She’s a born star.”
Sadly for Heidi, RedOne later backtracked on his statement, saying the publication he spoke to reported, “lies.” A subsequent tweet read, “I cannot Believe the LIES they are putting out about me producing Heidi Montag’s album!!! NOT TRUE!!!!”
So how did Lady Gaga develop a working relationship with the famed producer? Well, RedOne admitted that he almost overlooked her in his quest for bigger names. “At that time because I’d been struggling for so many years to get a break with big artists,” he recalled, “so I told [my manager] that I need to work with big stars.”
Once RedOne finally met with Lady Gaga, he was hooked, “I already liked her aura, it was special.” He added, “We started talking and I really liked her because you were talking to a musician, not just, ‘I wanna be a star! I wanna be a singer,’ the usual. She’s the real deal. I felt something.”
It was Lady Gaga’s authenticity and talent as a music that got RedOne on board, and the two created Just Dance and Poker Face together. These hits propelled Gaga into stardom.
Now, over a decade later, she still sits comfortably at the top. Heidi, meanwhile, appeared on The Hills: New Beginnings and runs a business selling crystals with husband Spencer Pratt. The couple often were at odds with their costars, and bring the same combative energy into their own lives, despite their attempts at serenity with their products.
In a 2016 interview with Spin, Spencer said, “Lady Gaga was this songwriter. We only know her name was Stefani. She was not even Lady Gaga yet, and she wrote a song with RedOne. RedOne gave it to Heidi and they put it out and everything. And then when it was on The View and getting all this press because Heidi had her Heidi fashion show, and the song Fashion was playing, all of sudden Lady Gaga freaked out, called RedOne, ‘That’s my song! I wanted that!’ and da-da-da.”
One song does not a musician make. Heidi’s debut album, Superficial, dropped in 2010, was a poor return on investment. It cost $2 million to produce with top pop professionals, yet only 1,000 copies were sold in its first week. A second album, EP Dreams Come True, was released in 2012. It flopped, and Heidi quit the music industry for seven years before resurfacing in 2019 with a Christian single Glitter and Glory. The song got exposure on The Hills: New Beginnings, but failed to gain interest.
Lady Gaga’s success speaks for itself.
TELL US- WHAT DO YOU THINK OF HEIDI’S ACCUSATIONS? WOULD HEIDI HAVE RISEN TO STARDOM IF REDONE HADN’T DROPPED HER?
[Photo Credit: Michael Tran/WireImage]