London, Europe Brief News – Beyoncé faced sharp criticism for using an ableist slur in some lyrics on her new album.
The derogatory term, often used to refer to people with cerebral palsy, is used twice in the song Heated, which is co-written by Canadian star Drake.
It comes just a couple of weeks after US pop star Lizzo apologised for using the same word in her song GRRRLS.
After that incident, Beyoncé’s song “feels like a slap in the face”, says disability advocate Hannah Diviney.
“I’m tired and frustrated that we’re having this conversation again so soon after we got such a meaningful and progressive response from Lizzo,” she tells the BBC.
“It’s so annoying because it’s so catchy,” says BBC disability correspondent Nikki Fox. “But it’s a horrible word.
“It’s a word we would never, ever use in the UK – although we recognise it’s sometimes used differently in the US.”
Fox notes that the track has 11 writers, and would have been cleared by several people at Beyoncé’s record label.
“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 whan Lizzo used the same word. It’s very disappointing.”
Beyoncé has released her long-anticipated album Renaissance – her first solo studio record in six years – to a blockbuster response from fans and critics, as well as a spot of controversy.
A 16-track dance record packed with high-profile, genre-spanning collaborators including Drake, Skrillex and Grace Jones, Renaissance is the first in a planned trilogy, Beyoncé said, in a statement uploaded to her website the day before the album’s release.
