will.i.am confirms Tulisa Contostavlos Scream + Shout rumours

will.i.am has confirmed his new single with Britney Spears was originally intended for British pop star Tulisa Contostavlos.

The Black Eyed Peas star scored an international chart hit with Scream + Shout, a duet with Spears, following its release last month (Nov12), but it was recently suggested the track was not initially supposed to feature the pop superstar.

will.i.am has now revealed the song was previously given to former N-Dubz star Contostavlos before he took it on.

He tells MTV.co.uk, "She (Contostavlos) wrote to that song (Scream + Shout) before I did - this is the truth. But the producers of the beat - two brothers from Belgium called Lazy Jay - didn't want her to have it, so I wrote to it and Britney is the only person I ever had in mind."