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Beyoncé makes changes to new album Renaissance after complaints

Beyoncé made the decision to tweak the lyrics of her seventh studio album following backlash from Kelis


Beyoncé has updated her new album Renaissance for a second time this week after she received criticism from singer Kelis.

A reference to Kelis’ 2003 smash-hit ‘Milkshake’ was removed from Beyoncé’s new song ‘Energy’ after Kelis took to social media to say she had not given permission for its use.

Parts of the hook from ‘Milkshake’ were used in the background of Beyoncé’s song but have since been removed.

Despite Kelis’ criticism that Beyoncé didn’t ask for permission, it appears that she didn’t have to, since Kelis is not credited as a writer on ‘Milkshake’ nor does she own any copyrights.

Those permissions would need to have been granted by Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo who Kelis gave the rights to earlier in her career in what she has said was a “bad deal”.

Regardless, Beyoncé decided to remove the interpolation – which differs from a sampling by re-recording a melody or a portion of a melody from a previously recorded song.

This also comes days after Beyoncé had to remove another lyric from her track ‘Heated’, which was co-written by Drake, which featured an ableist slur.

The song came under fire this week for the inclusion of the slur often used in a derogative manner to describe people with disabilities, specifically cerebral palsy.

Beyoncé’s team confirmed shortly after that the word would be removed.

Fans were disappointed as the release came just weeks after Lizzo faced similar criticism for including the same word in her song ‘GRRRLS’ which was released last month.

“Let me make one thing clear: I never want to promote derogatory language,” Lizzo said in a statement.

“I’m proud to say there’s a new version of ‘GRRRLS’ with a lyric change. This is a result of me listening and taking action.”