Beyonce

The star will remove lyrics from her new song Heated after criticism from disability campaigners.

The lead single, Break My Soul, is also expected to top the charts. It welcomed the change of heart. Some fans had defended Beyoncé, pointing out that the term she used can have a different meaning in the US - where it is often used to mean "freaking out" or "going crazy" (although those terms can themselves be insensitive to people with mental health conditions).

The derogatory term features in the lyrics of Heated, a track on the singer's latest album, Renaissance.

Lizzo re-released her song Grrrls with a “lyric change” and issued a statement apologising after facing criticism for her use of the same word. In a statement to the PA news agency, a spokesperson for Beyonce said: “The word, not used intentionally in a harmful manner, will be replaced in the lyrics.” Representatives for the 40-year-old confirmed the word, which was “not used intentionally in a harmful manner”, will be replaced in Heated, which was co-written by Canadian rapper Drake, and includes an ableist slur which is used twice toward the end of the song.

Beyoncé will replace an offensive term used in her new song Heated that prompted a backlash from fans and disability activists.

In a statement to the PA news agency, a spokesperson for the 40-year-old American star said: "The word, not used intentionally in a harmful manner, will be replaced in the lyrics." Lizzo re-released her song Grrrls with a "lyric change" and issued a statement apologising after facing criticism for her use of the same word. Representatives for Beyoncé confirmed the word - "not used intentionally in a harmful manner" - will be replaced in Heated.

The words to the song 'Heated,' from Beyoncé's latest album, 'Renaissance,' have sparked allegations of ableism on social media.

“So @Beyonce used the word ‘s—z’ in her new song Heated,” tweeted disability advocate Hannah Diviney, who penned a column for the Guardian about Lizzo’s and Beyoncé's back-to-back offenses. It means the world to me. After “Renaissance” debuted late Thursday night, several disability advocates condemned “Heated” for its offensive language on social media. Thank you for your unwavering support.” For context, the song contains the lyric, “S—zin’ on that a—, s—z on that a—.” After Diviney and others called her out in June, Lizzo proved she was “dedicated to being part of the change” by altering the lyrics to “GRRRLS” from “I’m a s—z” to “Hold me back.”

Beyoncé's new album Renaissance revels in its dualities, peppering modern sounds with references to past classics, house music, and techno with trap and ...

The win drew criticism from people questioning Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s history on queer issues, but her pledge to help steer “Black families towards accepting queer Black and brown men and women around the world” is newly relevant in the wake of Renaissance’s glitzy, sequined revolution. Renaissance is a master class in Black music studies, in nonstop vocal excellence, and in catering to an underappreciated corner of your fandom without bewildering or abandoning the others. “Church Girl” and “Break My Soul” share the enthusiasm for a funk vamp and a dance instructional informing earlier hits like the Austin Powers in Goldmember heat rock “Work It Out” or B’day’s “Get Me Bodied.” The trek from house to Afrobeat to trap and back that happens in two minutes during “Energy” feels like The Gift in miniature. This album taps the richness of expression of artists who had to build a new confidence for themselves in a country where every inch of respect is a fight. While accepting the Vanguard Award at the 2019 GLAAD Media Awards, Beyoncé spoke about the value of “connecting people who, at first glance, seem to be worlds apart” and honored the Black gay uncle she lost to AIDS-related illness, who taught her and her sister about music and fashion. (Also, instead of dragging Kelis for venting about the “Milkshake” shard in “Energy,” what if you put your energy behind calling for better deals for singers?) Elsewhere, we’re revisiting the showy vocal gymnastics that helped to prove Bey’s mettle as a solo artist across 2003’s Dangerously in Love. The runs just before the turn in “Move” overachieve the same way “Naughty Girl” does, swooping up and whirring dizzyingly, like planes in aerobatic competitions. The halo of “ooh”s floating over the verse in opener “I’m That Girl” conjures the Old Hollywood elegance and drama of the pool scene from The Great Muppet Caper. Skipping alongside Patrick Paige II’s bass in “Plastic Off the Sofa,” Bey leans into the flutelike high notes Joni Mitchell excels at. The writing is less macro than “Be Alive,” “Black Parade,” “Brown Skin Girl,” or “Find Your Way Back” (records she made, you would think, to shine a light on the political awakening happening while civil-rights protests swept the nation but whose single-mindedness and urgency ran counter to the effervescent R&B heaters a casual fan comes to Beyoncé for), but the international interests of The Gift and the intergenerational connectedness of Homecoming are still here adding complexity to even the straightforward club bangers. “Thique” counterbalances menacing, downtempo southern trap with zesty four-on-the-floor drums; “Move” and “Heated” luxuriate in the low-register flirtations of Drake jams (the latter getting assists from Actual Drake and “Best I Ever Had” and “God’s Plan” producer Boi-1da), queering his tough-loverboy bit as Bey, in raucous commentator mode, pays tribute to her Uncle Jonny. Renaissance isn’t just noting key moments in the development of dance music, mirroring the flowering of house, techno, electro, Miami bass, freestyle, hip-hop, and post-disco from the corpse of ’70s disco. She’s leaning into jams like Johnny Kemp’s “Just Got Paid,” Michael Jackson’s “Off the Wall,” or Curtis Mayfield’s “Diamond in the Back” — feel-good music that transcends pay brackets. “Suddenly it dawned on me that Diana was an iconic figure in the gay community,” wrote Rodgers, who had just agreed to write and produce Ross’s next album. Anyone who needs to push the dials in popular culture knows to come to the bleeding edge, to bask in the richness of the Black queer imagination, where, by nature of a tense relationship with the wider straight world and a fluid experience of gender, sounds and words and fashions take on exciting new forms.

The pop star's decision to replace two words in her song “Heated” follows Lizzo's removal of the same term, which has been used as a slur against disabled ...

“I thought we’d changed the music industry and started a global conversation about why ableist language — intentional or not — has no place in music,” Diviney wrote. The word at issue is based on spastic diplegia, a form of cerebral palsy that causes motor impairments in the legs or arms. Activists condemned the use of the word in social media posts, pointing out that another pop star, Lizzo, had removed the same lyric from a song following similar backlash in June.

The derogatory term features in the lyrics of Heated, a track on the singer's latest album, Renaissance.

The pop superstar, who is known for promoting body positivity and self-love in her music, said she “never want(s) to promote derogatory language” and said she is “dedicated to being part of the change I’ve been waiting to see in the world”. Lizzo re-released her song Grrrls with a “lyric change” and issued a statement apologising after facing criticism for her use of the same word. Beyonce has faced a backlash for the use of an offensive term in her song Heated, with a UK disability charity urging her to remove the word.

Following the release of her seventh studio album 'Renaissance,' Beyoncé's team said that she would change a lyric in her song 'Heated.'

“In an ideal world, the lyric never would have been used,” Appelbaum said. “So @Beyonce used the word ‘spaz’ in her new song Heated,” Diviney tweeted the day after the album dropped. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100; Beyoncé’s “Break My Soul” is at no. Diviney was referring to a lyric in the first verse of the song, originally “Do you see this sh-t? “As a fat black woman in America, I’ve had many hurtful words used against me so I overstand the power words can have (whether intentionally or in my case, unintentionally),” she continued. Then, following the release of Beyoncé’s seventh studio album Renaissance, her team announced that she would change the same lyric after her song “Heated” was criticized for similar reasons.

"How can there be 24 writers on a song?" Warren, who's written for artists from Aerosmith and Celine Dion to Beyoncé herself, tweeted with a confused emoji.

Once Beyoncé heard it, she immediately went into the studio to record it, and Warren said she thought it sounded perfect. Just a couple of days ago, Warren tweeted that "I Was Here," which she wrote and Beyoncé released in 2011, was one of her favorites. Warren, who's written for artists from Aerosmith and Celine Dion to Beyoncé herself, tweeted with a confused emoji.

Diane Warren said she meant no disrespect to Beyoncé after seemingly tweeting about the number of writers credited on Renaissance.

“I’m sorry for the misunderstanding.” Speaking to Rolling Stone, she added that “every collaborator who worked on this record should be celebrated.” Warren initially raised the ire of the Beyhive by asking — with a rolling eyes emoji — how there could be 24 writers on a song. ) Warren claimed that her question wasn’t meant to be shady, though she added in a since-deleted reply, “That’s 23 more than on mine.” No shade? “I meant no disrespect to @Beyonce, who I’ve worked with and admire,” she tweeted on August 1.

Diane Warren has issued an apology after facing criticism for her tweets that seemingly called out the songwriting credits listed on Beyoncé's album, ...

In response, Warren wrote, “I didn’t mean that as an attack or as disrespect. I’m sorry for the misunderstanding.” Warren then followed up with another tweet: “This isn’t meant as shade, I’m just curious.”

Beyoncé is facing criticism for using an ableist slur in some lyrics on her new album, Renaissance. The derogatory term, often used to refer to people with ...

"This is a direct hit at me [and] he does this stuff all the time. The reason I'm annoyed is because I know it was on purpose." It appears that the basis of Kelis's disagreement lies with them. Kelis said on Instagram. "It's common decency." that's not going away," she said in her video. It's very disappointing." Kelis said she had not been informed in advance, and that her "mind is blown" by the "level of disrespect". However, Beyoncé would not have had to seek Kelis's permission to reference Milkshake, as she is not a credited writer on the song and does not own the copyright. "It's not hard. "What was the point of Lizzo changing her lyrics if Beyoncé could just casually drop a song that has the same exact words in it?" "If you think of how many people that song will go through and not one of them thought, 'Hang on a minute', and not one person was not aware of the hoo-hah when Lizzo used the same word. "It's a word we would never, ever use in the UK - although we recognise it's sometimes used differently in the US."

Earlier this morning, Hollywood hitmaker Diane Warren asked what seemed a simple question on Twitter: “How can there be 24 writers on one song?”

Finally, this afternoon, Warren wrote, “I didn’t mean that as an attack or as disrespect. - Peter Rauhofer Warren did not mention the tune or the superstar singer by name, but the Beyhive still took umbrage.

Renaissance is Beyoncé's first solo album in more than five years, and her first fully dance album.

Lemonade came out during a time of great political upheaval in America and directly addressed the Black Lives Matter movement. Renaissance is less overtly political and more a celebration of a post-pandemic opportunity to hit the dance floor. Beyoncé World is not the messy, no-makeup selfies or confession videos of other stars. The audience is in on Beyoncé’s world-building the same way we watch a film. Beyoncé has yet to release any music videos for Renaissance, other than lyric-only videos. As I have written elsewhere, Beyoncé’s stardom is an interesting form of world-building.

The star will remove lyrics from her new song Heated after criticism from disability campaigners.

The lead single, Break My Soul, is also expected to top the charts. It welcomed the change of heart. Some fans had defended Beyoncé, pointing out that the term she used can have a different meaning in the US - where it is often used to mean "freaking out" or "going crazy" (although those terms can themselves be insensitive to people with mental health conditions).

The song "Heated" off Beyonce's seventh studio album "Renaissance" is getting changed following ableist backlash.

“It’s not a collab it’s theft,” Kelis said. Lizzo used the same term in her song “Grrrls” off her latest album, “Special.” In the original track, Lizzo sang: “Hold my bag, bitch, hold my bag/ Do you see this shit? The song includes the word “spaz” during a verse in which Beyonce sings: “Spazzin’ on that ass, spazz on that ass.” In the medical field, “spastic” refers to a disability that makes it difficult for people to control their muscles, especially in their arms and legs.

The BeyHive (and much of music Twitter) swarmed songwriter Diane Warren's account Monday after she asked, “How can there be 24 writers on a song?

“Well it started because we couldn’t afford certain things starting out, so we started sampling and it became an Artform, a major part of the Black Culture (hip hop) in America. Had that era not happen[ed], who knows. She then referred to the pushback Beyoncé faced from Kelis, who accused the singer of sampling “Milkshake” without permission. “People are telling her that since she doesn’t have the awards, her work is not great. “Y’all are really mean #OnHere a lot of the time. At first, the replies to Warren’s initial tweet called out the veteran songwriter — who worked on Beyoncé’s “I Was Here” — for not understanding how sampling and crediting works. The BeyHive (and much of music Twitter) swarmed songwriter Diane Warren’s account Monday after she asked, “ How can there be 24 writers on a song?” accompanied by eye-roll emoji.

Beyoncé has promised to change the lyrics in a song on her "Renaissance" album after a disability activist accused her of using an "ableist slur."

And she’s used “her power to have the world paying attention to the narratives, struggles and nuanced lived experience of being a black woman — a world I can only ever understand as an ally, and have no desire to overshadow.” Confused, Diviney started digging, eventually learning that Beyoncé had used the words “spaz” and “spazzin’” in “Heated,” a song co-written by Drake. But one of them told Insider in a statement that Beyoncé would change the lyrics. She called out Beyoncé on Twitter. She did the TV and newspaper interviews. “I’mma spaz; I’m about to knock somebody out,” she sings. “I thought we’d changed the music industry and started a global conversation about why ableist language — intentional or not — has no place in music,” Diviney wrote Sunday in an opinion piece that originally appeared on Hireup, an online platform for people with disabilities.

Beyoncé's publicist confirmed that the artist will replace an offensive lyric from a song in her latest album, Renaissance.

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It's on her "Renaissance" album. She follows the rapper Lizzo, who recently took the same word out of one of her songs after complaints from advocates for ...

Disability advocate Hannah Diviney, who pointed out Lizzo's lyrics that lead to the change, wrote on Twitter that hearing the word again used by Beyoncé "felt like a slap in the face to me, the disabled community & the progress we tried to make with Lizzo." Lizzo said in a statement she never wanted to promote derogatory language. "The word, not used intentionally in a harmful way, will be replaced," a spokeswoman for Beyoncé wrote in a statement to The Associated Press on Monday.

We need allies who care enough to shift their thinking, so the onus isn't always on disabled people to point out problems, says the Observer New Review ...

We need them to change the way things are from the inside – to stop intolerance creeping into their work in the first place, not amend things retroactively, too late. We need allies to truly care, to shift their thinking and try to see things the way we might. As Audre Lorde wrote in 1984, it is still “the responsibility of the oppressed to teach the oppressors their mistakes … there is a constant drain of energy which might be better used”. For too long, we have let these things slide. All of them, almost certainly, would argue they do not have an ableist bone in their body; too often, apologies take the form of “sorry if you were offended”. Lizzo and Beyoncé listened to the criticism and changed their lyrics, and will hopefully learn from their experiences. As a form of self-preservation we’ve trained ourselves to laugh off inappropriate or thoughtless comments, to see them as “just a joke”. Even if inside it feels as though a dreadful weight is pushing down on you, pointing out that something is causing you pain can feel like spoiling everyone else’s fun, like you’re being overly sensitive and finding offence where there was none. In her medieval fable Lapvona, Ottessa Moshfegh, usually an incredible and fearless writer, uses her characters’ disabilities – their “clawed hand”, “unseemly disproportion”, being “misshapen” – as a way of evoking eeriness and discomfort.

The star's new album Renaissance weaves Black dance music history, feminism and queer thought into an ecstatic masterpiece that defies marginalisation.

Each sound constitutes a dense building block in a seamless, exuberant sonic history of how to live a free life in our Black bodies in spite of enduring attempts to annihilate them. Nearly a decade since Beyoncé pulled Black feminism explicitly to the centre of her repertoire (on her masterful, self-titled 2013 “surprise” album), Renaissance continues to deepen this resolve as it weds cutting-edge pop experimentation with Black feminist liberation principles that speak to our ever-present precarity. To be “un-American” in Beyoncé’s Renaissance age is to be “comfortable in my skin”, as she sings on the slinky Chicago house banger Cozy. The song features trans icon Ts Madison’s soundbite “Black as I want to be” and a verse that not only sets out to “paint the world pussy pink”, but drench it in the colours of Daniel Quasar’s expansive Progress Pride rainbow flag. Into this midst, Beyoncé has unleashed a reclamation of the pleasure to be found in our own flesh. It is the third year of a pandemic in which we continue to struggle to keep our bodies well and gradually learn how to make contact again with other bodies. Oh, to be an “un-American girl” in the year of our Lord 2022.

Songwriter Diane Warren got a lesson in music sampling from Beyoncé's fans and producer after questioning the many writers on the song 'Alien Superstar.'

The-Dream replied again, seeming to recognize Warren’s prolific oeuvre, tweeting: “Btw I know it’s not a one on one writing contest you looking for from no one over here…… Others were quick to punch below the belt and compare her signature dark-haired look to that of convicted socialite Ghislaine Maxwell. “well it started because we couldn’t afford certain things starting out, so we started sampling and it became an Artform, a major part of the Black Culture (hip hop) in America. Had that era not happen who knows.

One month after Lizzo removed the same term from 'Grrrls', Beyoncé confirms the removal of harmful language from new album track 'Heated'.

The slur, recently used and subsequently taken out of a song by Lizzo, has been deemed unacceptable by fans (good-intentions non-withstanding). A rep for Beyoncé commented saying “the word, not used intentionally in a harmful way, will be replaced," though there's been no official timeline set. Artists taking responsibility for the harmful language they promote, whether intentionally or not, is paramount. Is it because of their current visibility on the music scene? "Let me make one thing clear: I never want to promote derogatory language. Renaissance, while widely celebrated, has not been without controversy.