John Legend says there's 'no sides' in the debate over his reworked Christmas song

22 November 2019

John Legend says there's "no side to be on" in the debate about his and Kelly Clarkson's remake of 'Baby, It's Cold Outside'.

John Legend

The 40-year-old singer teamed up with Kelly to rework the festive song, but the pair were met with backlash as many fans of the original claimed they had "ruined" the song by changing the lyrics to make the song more respectful.

And now, John - who worked with Natasha Rothwell on the updated lyrics - has slammed the ongoing debate, saying it's "just another version of the song", and there's nothing stopping people from listening to the original.

He said: "First of all, there's no side to be on. It's just another version of the song. If you don't wanna listen to it, you don't have to. No one's saying you can't listen to the old version. Those versions all exist. People make new versions of songs all the time and we thought it'd be fun to update the song and make it more current."

John says he had "a lot of fun" working on the song, and doesn't mind if some people don't like the changes.

He added to People magazine: "We wanted a comedic angle to it so I asked Natasha Rothwell from 'Insecure' to be my co-writer on it. She came up with so many funny ideas and we used so much of it and made a brand new version, one that's kind of updated for now. And we had a lot of fun making it."

Kelly, 37, has also spoken out about the backlash, and said she is amazed she "ruined Christmas" with the remake.

She said: "Did you not hear that John and I ruined Christmas recently? I was like,' How did I mess that up?'...

"He had this idea, because of the #MeToo movement, they pulled 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' from any radio. Like, a lot of radio stations at Christmas. Well, I love that song.

"We like the original, but we noticed that a lot of people didn't. So we were like, 'Let's just give them another option.' And apparently, we killed Christmas."

Among those upset with the new version was Sharon Osbourne, who branded it as "ridiculous", as she accused John and Kelly of messing with "a piece of art".