Following backlash, American singer and actress, Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter is set to remove an offensive album lyric that uses an ableist slur from her new album ‘Renaissance’.
TheNewsGuru.com reports that the musician’s publicist has confirmed that the lyric will be removed.
The star faced a backlash over the use of an offensive term on her new track ‘Heated’, where she sings: “Sp***in’ on that ass, sp** on that ass,” towards the end of the song.
While used colloquially in the United States with a similar meaning to “freak out” or “go crazy”, the term emerges from the word “spastic”, which is used medically to describe the spasms one might experience from a condition like cerebral palsy.
The term is often used in a derogative manner to describe those with disabilities, especially cerebral palsy.
According to the Beyoncé’s publicist, the lyric is now set to be replaced and that it was not “used intentionally in a harmful way.”
Disability equality charity Scope had described the use of the “deeply offensive term” as “appalling”, while disability advocate, Hannah Diviney, said the singer’s status as one of the most famous musicians in the world did not “excuse her use of ableist language”.
“So @Beyonce used the word ‘sp**’ in her new song ‘Heated’. Feels like a slap in the face to me, the disabled community and the progress we tried to make with Lizzo,” added Diviney.
Lizzo also received a backlash over an ableist lyric in her single ‘Grrrls’ a few weeks ago, which she has since addressed and altered.
Following criticism of her single, Lizzo responded in a statement posted to her social media, writing: “Let me make one thing clear: I never want to promote derogatory language.
“As a fat black woman in America, I’ve had many hurtful words used against me so I overstand [sic] the power words can have (whether intentionally or in my case, unintentionally).”
She went on to say that the altered lyric came as a direct result of her “listening [to her critics] and taking action”, further noting: “As an influential artist, I’m dedicated to being part of the change I’ve been waiting to see in the world.”
Last week, Kelis also criticised Beyoncé after she claimed that she was sampled on ‘Renaissance’ without granting permission.
Beyoncé, born September 4, 1981, is also known as a songwriter and producer. She performed in various singing and dancing competitions as a child. She rose to fame in the late 1990s as the lead singer of Destiny’s Child, one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. Their hiatus saw the release of her debut album Dangerously in Love (2003), which featured the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles “Crazy in Love” and “Baby Boy”.
Following the 2006 disbanding of Destiny’s Child, she released her second solo album, B’Day, which contained singles “Irreplaceable” and “Beautiful Liar”. Beyoncé also starred in multiple films such as The Pink Panther (2006), Dreamgirls (2006), Obsessed (2009), and The Lion King (2019).
Her marriage to Jay-Z and her portrayal of Etta James in Cadillac Records (2008) influenced her third album, I Am… Sasha Fierce (2008), which earned a record-setting six Grammy Awards in 2010. It spawned the successful singles “If I Were a Boy”, “Single Ladies”, and “Halo”.
After splitting from her manager and father Mathew Knowles in 2010, Beyoncé released her musically diverse fourth album 4 in 2011. She later achieved universal acclaim for her sonically experimental visual albums, Beyoncé (2013) and Lemonade (2016), the latter of which was the world’s best-selling album of 2016 and the most acclaimed album of her career, exploring themes of infidelity and womanism.
In 2018, she released Everything Is Love, a collaborative album with her husband, Jay-Z, as the Carters. As a featured artist, Beyoncé topped the Billboard Hot 100 with the remixes of “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran in 2017 and “Savage” by Megan Thee Stallion in 2020. The same year, she released the musical film and visual album Black Is King to widespread acclaim.
Beyoncé is one of the world’s best-selling recording artists, having sold over 120 million records worldwide as a solo artist by 2010.[5][6] She is the first solo artist to have their first six studio albums debut at number one on the Billboard 200.[7] Her success during the 2000s was recognized with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)’s Top Certified Artist of the Decade as well as Billboard’s Top Female Artist of the Decade.
Beyoncé’s accolades include 28 Grammy Awards, 26 MTV Video Music Awards (including the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award in 2014), 24 NAACP Image Awards, 31 BET Awards, and 17 Soul Train Music Awards; all of which are more than any other singer.
In 2014, Billboard named her the highest-earning black musician of all time, while in 2020, she was included on Time’s list of 100 women who defined the last century.