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The most memorable moment from the 2003 edition of the 2003 Video Music Awards was when Madonna performed with Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, with the “Material Girl” singer giving each of the other women a steamy kiss.
Had things gone another way, rumour has it, Madonna would have locked lips with Jennifer Lopez, who was invited to the performance but wasn’t able to make it.
Lopez is finally confirming that she was indeed supposed to kiss Madonna at the VMAs, but wasn’t able to make it due to a prior commitment, leading Aguilera to step in as a replacement.
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“And I couldn’t get off the film, so they got Christina to do it,” Lopez said in a recent interview with E! News.
“I’m a huge fan of Madonna,” she added, “I always have been.”
While both Spears and Aguilera wound up being kissed, it was Madonna’s kiss with Spears that generated the most controversy — because it was the one to air on television, with cameras cutting away during the Aguilera smooch to capture the reaction of Spears’ then-boyfriend Justin Timberlake.
“It was weird,” Aguilera told Andy Cohen in a 2018 SiriusXM radio interview. “They cut away to get Justin’s reaction. It was a cheap shot.”
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In fact, Aguilera revealed that she didn’t realize viewers never saw Madonna kiss her until the following morning. “I saw the newspaper the next day and I was like, ‘Oh, well, I guess I got left out of that one,’” she added.