With a brand new celebrity cat fight starting to emerge, now’s a good time to look back at the fiercest rivalries in music history. Here’s Musictoob’s top music feuds.

7. Mariah Carey vs Madonna

Madge and Mimi are pop’s greatest divas, so it’s a surprise they haven’t clashed earlier. Drama queen Perez Hilton has been stoking this one somewhat, reporting on Mariah Carey’s comments in a Spanish magazine to a question regarding Madonna:

When asked about Madonna (how dare that reporter mention that name infront of Mimi!!!) and how she feels about her Madgesty recording an R&B album, Mariah responds that it’s “interesting.” Then pauses, and continues, “It’s very interesting.”

It’s tame stuff by the standards of others on this list, but with these egos who knows where it’s headed.
Winner: Too early to tell, but our money’s on Madonna.

Here’s Mariah and Maddona’s latest singles battle:

Madonna featuring Justin Timberlake, 4 Minutes, 2008.

Mariah Carey, Touch My Body, 2008.

6. Paul McCartney vs Michael Jackson

Things started out well between two of the biggest selling artists of all time. The pair duetted on two 80s singles, Say Say Say and The Girl is Mine, and seemed to be getting on famously. But it all went sour when Jackson outbid McCartney for the rights to the Beatles back catalogue. Now Sir Paul has to bite his lip every time he sings Yesterday, knowing that he’ll have to pay money to Jackson for the privilege.
Winner: Jackson’s still got the rights, but McCartney’s looking in better shape mentally and physically.

Here’s what they were like back when they were friends:

Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson, Say Say Say, 1983.

5. Robbie Williams vs Liam Gallagher

Like so many rivalries, this relationship started out friendly enough when the pair hung out together backstage at Glastonbury in 1994. But as their careers took them into direct competition in the charts, a war of words ensued. Robbie used the stage at the Brit awards in 1995 to challenge an absent Liam to a boxing match. Liam responded at the Q awards, this time right in front Robbie, who walked out of the event soon after. A childish affair, but it was entertaining… for five minutes.
Winner: Liam, as he’s the hardest.

Re-live the Q awards fracas:

Liam disses Robbie at the Q Awards.

Robbie leaves the Q Awards in disgust.

4. Britney Spears vs Cristina Aguillera

Both pop princesses were previously (and in some ways still are) members of the Micky Mouse Club. But since ‘coming of age’ their career trajectories seemed destined to collide, and the 90s saw them both trying to out-dirty each other through their songs and videos. There followed a war of words through the media, as Britney called Cristina ‘a dark person’, while Cristina responded by cattily mentioning that Brit had ‘let herself go’ during pregnancy.
Winner: Britney was more successful, but recently seems to have lost the plot, while Cristina has kept her head together pretty well.

The battle of the sexies:

Cristina Aguillera, Dirrty, Live on Top of the Pops, 2002.

Britney Spears, I Can’t Get No Satisfaction, Live.

3. Blur vs Oasis

In 1995, after some mild chest puffing from both bands, the UK’s brightest new stars released singles on the same day: Country House by Blur and Roll With It by Oasis were locked in a race for the number 1 spot. The media lapped it up as the ’90s version of ‘Beatles vs Stones’ (see below), and the rivalry that defined Britpop began. There were so many angles - art school vs school of hard knocks, north vs south, Manchester vs London. It all got a bit ugly when Oasis’s Noel Gallagher publicly wished a bout of AIDS on Blur’s Damon Albarn. Surprisingly, Liam apologised for his brother’s words backstage at Top of the Pops, but couldn’t resist adding ‘Your band is still shit though’.
Winner: Blur won the battle of the singles by taking the number one slot, but Oasis won the Britpop war.

The two singles that sparked the war:

Blur, Country House, 1995.

Oasis, Roll With It, 1995.

2. The Beatles vs The Stones

Lennon and McCartney were initially impressed by the Rhythm and Blues band from down South, and gave them a leg up by writing their second single, I Wanna Be Your Man. But when Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham started marketing the Stones as the rougher alternative to the clean-cut Beatles, the two bands became polarised in the public’s eyes and rock’s first real rivalry began. By today’s standards the competition wasn’t too fierce, as management and band scheduled releases around each other so as not to compete head-to-head in the charts. But by the time the Beatles split, the gloves were off. John Lennon let it all out in the famous interview with Rolling Stone in 1970:

‘I’d like to just list what we did and what the Stones did two months after, on every fuckin’ album and every fuckin’ thing we did. Mick does exactly the same. He imitates us. Let it Bleed [the Stones' sardonic reply to Let it Be]. Satanic Majesties is Pepper. She’s a Rainbow - it’s the most fuckin’ bullshit - is All You Need is Love. They’re not in the same class, music-wise or power-wise. Never were. And Mick always resented it.’

Winner: Nearly 40 years after they split, the legacy of the Beatles is stronger than ever.

It was all peace and love back then:

The Beatles, All You Need is Love, 1967.

The Rolling Stones, She’s a Rainbow, 1967.

House of Love, Beatles and the Stones, 1990.

1. Tupac Shakur vs Notorious B.I.G.

This one makes all other feuds look like playground spats. An East Coast/West Coast rap rivalry started out innocently enough as the former friends verbally taunted each other through their work. But things soon got out of control as their respective entourages attacked each other with increasing violence. When Tupac was shot in 1994 he accused B.I.G. of being involved. By 1997 both had been shot dead within six months of each other. Although their murders remain unsolved, it’s widely believed that the rivals’ gangs were responsible for the killings.
Winner: Hey, no-one wins when guns are involved.

Back when they were friends:

Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. freestyle, 1995.