People power forces Beyonce to alter lyrics

NEW YORK. — Beyoncé has updated her latest album, Renaissance, in response to criticism from fans and the pop star Kelis.

The song Heated has received a lyrical update, removing a slur that is often used to demean people with spastic cerebral palsy.

In place of the so-called “s-word”, Beyoncé now sings “blast”.

Meanwhile, a reference to Kelis’s hit Milkshake has also disappeared from the album, after the singer complained she had not given permission for its use. The percussion from Milkshake was originally used in the background of Beyoncé’s song Energy. Those vocals have now been erased from the mix.

A drum sample from the 1999 Kelis track Get Along With You remains on the track.

The updates happened on streaming services including Spotify, Tidal and Apple overnight on Tuesday, just five days after Renaissance was released.

At the time of writing, the original versions remain on YouTube. It is also too late to change the vinyl and CD editions of the album — although future pressings may contain the revisions.

Beyoncé came under fire from disability advocates over the weekend for the lyrics on Heated.

It came just a few weeks after another US pop star, Lizzo, apologised for using the same derogatory term in her song GRRRLS.

Both Lizzo and Beyoncé said they were unaware of the connotations of the word — whose links to cerebral palsy are less well-known in the US.

In a statement on Monday, Beyoncé’s publicist said: “The word, not used intentionally in a harmful manner, will be replaced in the lyrics”.

The Kelis story is less clear-cut.

The singer took to social media last week, accusing Beyoncé of “theft” after learning her anthem Milkshake had been interpolated on the song Energy (interpolation is when one song references another, without directly sampling it).

Kelis said she had not been informed in advance, and that her mind was “blown” by the “level of disrespect”.

“It’s not hard. She can contact me, right?” Kelis said on Instagram. “It’s common decency.”

However, Beyoncé would not have had to seek Kelis’s permission to reference Milkshake, as the singer is not a credited writer on the song and does not own the copyright.

Instead, permission would have been sought from writer/producers Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo — and Kelis’s disagreement is largely with them. She has previously accused the duo, professionally known as the Neptunes, of “lying and tricking” her into a bad deal, which gave them the rights to her music at the start of her career. — BBC.