7 Pop Stars Who Were Rejected by Record Labels Before They Were Famous

Every pop star’s origin story tends to get smoothed over once the hits start rolling in. What rarely makes the highlight reel is the string of closed doors, canceled contracts, and blunt dismissals that came first. Long before arena tours and chart records, some of the biggest names in music spent years being told, in one way or another, that they simply weren’t good enough.

Katy Perry

Long before “I Kissed a Girl” turned her into a household name, Katy Perry spent the better part of a decade being signed and then dropped. Producer Glen Ballard signed Perry to his Island/Def Jam-distributed label Java in 2004, but once the imprint severed ties with its parent company, Perry and the album were dropped. It was hardly her first setback either, since her earlier gospel album under her birth name had already failed to gain traction and led to the shuttering of that label.

She then moved to Columbia Records, where things looked more promising for a while. Following two unsuccessful contracts with Island Def Jam Records and Columbia Records, Perry was dropped by both before she could finish an album. Only after signing with Capitol Records in 2007 did she finally release “One of the Boys,” the album that made her a star.

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga’s brush with rejection came courtesy of one of the most respected executives in the business. Joshua Sarubin, the head of A&R at Def Jam Recordings, responded positively to her demos and, after approval from his boss Antonio “L.A.” Reid, Gaga was signed to Def Jam in September 2006. It looked like the beginning of a real career.

Instead, it ended almost as quickly as it started. She was dropped from the label three months later, a decision Reid later called the biggest mistake of his career. Gaga regrouped, spent time performing in downtown New York clubs, and eventually landed with Interscope and its Streamline imprint, where “Just Dance” changed everything.

Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran’s rejection story is a little different, since it wasn’t about his songwriting at all. Multiple label representatives passed on him early in his career, reportedly concerned that his appearance did not fit the image they wanted to market, a claim Sheeran has spoken about openly in interviews over the years.

Rather than wait around for a label to change its mind, Sheeran built an audience himself. He released an independent EP, No.5 Collaborations Project, and gained mainstream attention for reaching number two on the iTunes chart without any promotion or label, selling over 7,000 copies in the first week. He was signed to Asylum Records shortly after. The label doubts that once slowed him down turned out to be spectacularly wrong.

Pink (P!nk)

Before she was P!nk, Alecia Moore’s early attempts at group stardom kept falling apart around her. At 14, she was convinced to audition to become a member of the all-female group Basic Instinct and earned a spot in the lineup, but the group ultimately disbanded without releasing any material. Her next attempt at a group, Choice, fared no better commercially.

Choice signed with LaFace Records, and while the group’s recorded album never saw a commercial release, one of their songs did end up on a movie soundtrack before the trio disbanded. Rather than let her go entirely, label boss L.A. Reid saw something worth salvaging. During a Christmas party, Reid gave Pink an ultimatum: go solo or go home. She chose solo, and the rest became pop history.

Enrique Iglesias

Enrique Iglesias didn’t want anyone to know he was the son of Julio Iglesias, so he tried to make it on his own terms first, and it didn’t go smoothly. He got rejected by a few big labels, including MCA, before anyone showed real interest. He had recorded his demo under a fake name and a fabricated backstory specifically to avoid any hint that his famous surname was doing the work for him.

The rejections eventually gave way to a real opportunity. He approached his father’s former publicist, and the two promoted the songs under the stage name Enrique Martínez with the backstory of being a singer from Guatemala, until Mexican record label Fonovisa signed him. That deal launched a career that would eventually make him one of the best selling Latin artists in music history.

Shania Twain

Before Shania Twain became one of country and pop crossover’s biggest names, she spent years performing in small Canadian clubs and resorts just to make ends meet, largely unnoticed by the Nashville establishment. Industry insiders who did hear her early recordings were often unconvinced that her sound and image fit what country radio was looking for at the time, and interest from major labels was slow to materialize despite her clear vocal talent.

It took persistent effort from those around her, along with a shift in her own sound, before Mercury Nashville finally took a chance and signed her in the early 1990s. Once she teamed up with producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange for “The Woman in Me” and later “Come On Over,” the years of being overlooked became a footnote to one of the best selling country crossover careers of all time.