Revisiting 'Mona Lisa': The Dark Song Britney Spears' Label NEVER Wanted You To Hear!

Think you know all of Britney Spears’ best songs? What about the one her label never wanted you to hear?
Hardcore Britney stans might already know we’re talking about Mona Lisa, the late 2004 track that the Pop Princess recorded as a lead single for a potential album — tentatively titled The Original Doll — that was never released.
Brit wanted the world to hear Mona Lisa so badly, she delivered it herself to a Burbank, California radio station without the knowledge of her label. After a quick chat with the bare-footed then-23-year-old superstar, the KIIS-FM station played Mona Lisa for the first time on air that December.
It was never played again, and The Original Doll never saw the light of day.
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Mona Lisa was eventually touched up and mastered for a quiet release as a B-side on the Britney & Kevin: Chaotic DVD in September 2005. The song, pretty much Britney’s dark sequel to 2000’s Lucky, is about a powerful woman who gets taken advantage of and ultimately self destructs because of it.
Take a listen to Mona Lisa (below):

It’s all very grim, especially now knowing what had happened to the pop icon in the years following the rogue airing of the track. We mean, just look at these lyrics:

Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve got a little story to tell
About Mona Lisa and how she suddenly fell
See everyone knew her, they knew her oh so well
Now I am taking over to release her from her spell

She’s the original
She’s unforgettable
She wants you to know
She’s been gone

Earlier that year, the paint chips of Britney’s public image had started to peel off: she got married to a childhood pal for a historic 55 hours and was forced to cancel her grueling 93-city tour halfway through its run. Mona Lisa was most definitely a reflection of what Britney was going through at that time.
In an age before social media, the star was itching to be honest with her fans in a way that pop stars can do with a single tweet today. But, as often the case with Spears, her label wouldn’t let her speak for herself. Which is likely why she felt the need to deliver the track herself to the station later that year.

“They want her to breakdown, be a legend of her fall”

It was a few days before New Year’s Eve when DJ Jesse Lozano, who was filling in for the regular host, found out that the world’s biggest pop star wanted to pop in the studio and play her new song. As he recalled to Buzzfeed in 2014, Lozano was told by a colleague:

“Britney Spears is on the phone. She says she wants to play her new song.”

Naturally, he thought it was a prank. But an hour later, Britney was outside the station’s Burbank studio with a bodyguard, her chihuahua, and, Lozano remembered, no shoes. He recalled:

“She had a CD with her and said, ‘Can we play it on the air?'”

He said of course, and invited the star in the studio for a quick on-air interview:

“Lozano: Britney Spears live in studio! Do you have to take a super-secret CIA mission-secure route to Burbank from your crib so you don’t get followed?
Britney: No!
Lozano: I didn’t see anybody outside.
Britney: I know! It’s awesome.
Lozano: I walked out there, there wasn’t one camera anywhere.
Britney: I know, it’s great!
Lozano: Well thanks for hanging tonight. Good luck with your album. It’s untitled.
Britney: It’s probably going to be called Original Doll, so…
Lozano: And it’s half done?
Britney: Yeah. It’s halfway done right now.
Lozano: Alright, so maybe by the summer? Maybe by the fall?
Britney: Yeah, yeah maybe a little bit earlier.”

Brit revealed that Mona Lisa was written and recorded with live instruments that year while she was on The Onyx Hotel Tour. She noted that it was a rough mix and hoped the track would lead a new album in the following year.
They came back from commercial break. Spears introduced Mona Lisa and an unfinished version of the song was played… one time and one time only.

“May we have a moment of silence right here?”

Mona Lisa may have never turned into one of Britney’s best known jams like she had hoped it would, but the character stayed with her as an alter-ego. “Mona Lisa” was the “Sasha Fierce” to Britney’s Beyoncé, if you will, as the star explained in 2005:

“Whenever I feel like being mean or possibly like bustin’ people around to get stuff right, it’s kinda easier to be called ‘Mona Lisa’ instead of Britney.”

Britney even credited herself under that pseudonym in the credits for Do Somethin’. As eagle-eyed fans would know, the words “Mona Lisa” popped up in the beginning of the 2008 music video for that song. See for yourself (below):

As we’ve been reporting, the pop legend is still struggling to fight for her own freedoms to this day. Mona Lisa continues to be an unsettling portrait of what the performer’s life has become: a powerful woman who fought for her liberties but was ultimately silenced.
It’s about damn time we start listening to her.