Jordin Sparks had Grammy aspirations for her “No Air” collaboration with Chris Brown, but she believes the hit record was ultimately snubbed due to Breezy’s assault on Rihanna.
The American Idol winner joined Cut for a recent interview where she publicly reflected on the controversial 2009 Grammy Awards for the first time.
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“I found out like everybody else found out,” she said. “We were nominated for Best R&B Collaboration that year. As soon as I stepped foot on that red carpet, I had both of the label’s publicists going, ‘You know nothing.’ And I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ Because I really didn’t know anything.”
“More and more people started getting the news about it and I’m sitting just looking like, ‘I don’t know.’ I was also a kid — I’m 18 years old at this point. Then I get it to my phone and I’m just like, ‘Oh my God.’
“Not that I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m better than all these people.’ The song was huge so I was like, ‘We have a really good chance of winning this. They announce the winner and it ends up being Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. I was like, ‘Wait, what?’ I was so blown and I just couldn’t believe it.”
Sparks admitted she was naive to the industry’s politics when it came to award shows as a teenager at the time.
“I think a lot of the powers that be had a hand in [it]. That was a really tough time for me because I didn’t understand. I didn’t get it,” she continued. “I also didn’t know about the ins and outs of the industry and the puppetry and the hands that can go into a lot of things.”
On February 8, 2009, an altercation between the former couple broke out in Brown’s Lamborghini after RiRi allegedly went through his text messages and found a message from someone he was involved with in the past. Brown claims the Barbados-born singer said she hated him and began to hit him.
“I remember she tried to kick me, but then I really hit her, with a closed fist, like I punched her,” Brown recalled in 2017. “I busted her lip. When I saw it, I was in shock. I was like, ‘Fuck, why the hell did I hit her?’ From there, she just spit in my face … like spit blood in my face and it enraged me even more. It was a real fight in the car.”
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“No Air” was released in 2008 and reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. The anthem was nominated at the 2009 Grammy Awards in the Best Pop Collaboration category. It’s Jordin Sparks’ biggest hit to date and the only Grammy nom of her career.
