An unedited version of Britney Spears’ “Alien” leaked via YouTube on July 2 — but was removed “due to a copyright claim by SME” on July 9.
Spears’ recording was pretty bad, and the Internet fully acknowledged that.
The track’s producer, William Orbit, released a statement on Facebook defending the auto-tune-less song:
“I’d like to affirm that ANY singer when first at the mic at the start of a long session can make a multitude of vocalisations in order to get warmed up. Warming up is essential if you’re a pro, as it is with a runner doing stretches, and it takes a while to do properly. I’ve heard all manner of sounds emitted during warmups. The point is that it is not supposed to be shared with millions of listeners.”