Fans of late R&B star Aaliyah are upset over a newly released trailer of a planned Lifetime biopic of the singer’s life. The problem? The trailer for the Aaliyah movie doesn’t feature the R&B singer’s music — instead, the trailer is set to Australian rapper Iggy Azalea’s “Goddess.”
The movie, titled Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B, is no stranger to controversy, as the estate of the late singer has publicly stated their disapproval of the project.
It should come as little surprise, then, that Aaliyah’s estate refused to license any of the singer’s famous songs for the movie’s soundtrack. The choice of Azalea, however, has met with a somewhat negative reaction from media outlets and fans.
This latest strange twist in the biopic’s production comes a few months after the first actress set to play Aaliyah in the project, Zendaya Coleman, explained why she dropped out of the movie. Coleman stated that her reasons for stepping aside were “the production value wasn’t there, there were complications with the music rights, and I just felt like it wasn’t being handled delicately considering the situation.”
Coleman was replaced with actress Alexandra Shipp shortly thereafter, and work on the biopic resumed. Despite the various production challenges and outcry surrounding the film, Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B is set to air at 8 PM on Saturday, November 15, exclusively on Lifetime.