Simon Cowell recalled saying that someone with name "Britney Spears" would never have a hit while revealing he tried to bribe the producer to bag one of her songs.
The music mogul said that he once offered the Hit Me Baby One More Time’s record producer a Mercedes in exchange of the now-hit track for his own boy band Five.
However, the producer Max Martin told him that he had already promised the track to Spears, who was new singer in town with no original songs at the time.
“So I phoned up Max and said 'please, please give me this song'. And he went, 'I've promised it to someone else'. And I said, 'well I'll send you a Mercedes 500 SL if I can have this song,’” Cowell said on Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast.
“'And he went 'no, I've promised it to somebody else'. And I said 'who?' and he went, 'Britney Spears'. And I said 'Max, let me give you some advice, no one is going to have a hit with the name Britney Spears'. She wasn't even known,’” the Britain's Got Talent judge added.
Despite not getting the track, which went on become a super hit song and topped the charts in 22 countries around the world, Cowell said that Martin made the right decision by keeping his promise.
“He's honourable. He promised the song and he wasn't going to break the promise, and look, he made the right decision,” Cowell said.