American songwriter, musician, and record producer Diane Warren asked a question. Twitter didn’t much like it.
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The artist wrote on the social media platform in the wake of the release of the superstar Beyonce’s new album, Renaissance, “How can there be 24 writers on a song?”
While Warren didn’t call out or tag Queen B specifically, it was clear to many on Twitter that that’s who she was aiming at. And, as such, all of Beyonce’s Bee Hive came to her defense.
Warren later followed up on Twitter, “I meant no disrespect to @Beyonce, who I’ve worked with and admire. I’m sorry for the misunderstanding.”
Later, in an interview, Warren added that “every collaborator who worked on this record should be celebrated.”
Beyonce’s song “Alien Superstar” credits 24 people.
In a since-deleted reply to her own tweet, Warren had added, “That’s 23 more than on mine.”
One example of a Twitter defense of Queen B came from Twitter user @TheKingDream, who wrote, “You mean how’s does our (Black) culture have so many writers, 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 happened who knows. U good?”
And boom goes the dynamite.
Warren has written hit songs like “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” (Aerosmith) and “If I Could Turn Back Time” (Cher).
She also wrote Beyonce’s 2011 track, “I Was Here.”
In another tweet, @TheKingDream added, “[Y]ou know I love you, but come on. Stop acting like your records haven’t been sampled.”
“I didn’t know this, thank U for making me aware of it,” Warren replied. “No need to be mean about it.”
In other Beyonce news, the artist didn’t escape some real criticism after her album release, both for using, what some call, an “ableist” slur and for using Kelis’ song without permission. Read about those incidents HERE and HERE.
(Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
