“Max Martin wrote ‘Bang Bang,’ and Ariana had been played it, I’d been played it, and we both loved it,” Jessie J recalled. “We just said, ‘Why don’t we both do it?’ So Ariana stayed on the second verse, I recorded the first verse, and then Nicki was played it in the studio and was like, ‘I’ve got to jump on this.’ We didn’t go to her and ask; she wanted to do it.”
The 33-year-old “Price Tag” vocalist continued by sharing her excitement upon first hearing Nicki’s bars for the song. “I’ll never forget: I was in my bedroom in my flat in London, and I got sent the version with Nicki on it,” she said. “I just sat at the end of my bed holding my phone, staring at the floor, going, ‘How the f–k did I land this?’ I literally felt like I’d won a competition.”