While he was a rising artist in 2009, Justin Bieber sampled The Cardigans’ ‘Lovefool’ for his single ‘Love Me’ from his debut album, ‘My World.’ The track achieved commercial success, making its way into the charts across Canada, the US, the UK, and Australia.
But, before this, the band was not willing to let the pop singer use the song, as Nina Persson admitted in a chat with NME in 2018:
“It was early in Justin’s career, so we hadn’t heard of him. Our management sent an email with the song attached asking: ‘Are you going to allow this?’ I remember listening to it and being like: ‘Hell no!'”
She revealed what changed their mind by saying:
“Our management persuaded us to reconsider, insisting ‘he’s a fast-rising star, and it might be good for you – there might be money!'”
Further explaining why they weren’t warm to the idea of letting Bieber riff off the track’s chorus, the vocalist added:
“We’ve been very protective of ‘Lovefool’ and have said yes to hardly anything – I’m not Bieber-bashing!”
‘Lovefool’ appeared in only a few other projects throughout the years. Shortly after its release in 1996, Baz Luhrmann added it to the soundtrack of ‘Romeo + Juliet,’ which caused it to enter the Radio Songs chart in its second week at number 2 spot.
On the song’s 20th anniversary, Persson talked about this success in a chat with Billboard:
“We put out that song and record and embarked on a long tour, so in one way, nothing changed for us. Then the movie came out, and the U.S. caught on tremendously.”
In the following years, cover versions of the track started to come out. While actress Leighton Meester performed ‘Lovefool’ for the series ‘A.V. Undercover’ in 2015, Twocolors re-recorded it in 2020.
Also, as a new name in the music scene, Claire Rosinkranz sampled the song’s chorus for her single ‘Frankenstein’ last year, as Bieber did in 2009. You can check out the song below.