Beyonce to remove offensive lyric after disabled community outcry

Six years after she shook the culture with her powerful visual album 'Lemonade,' Beyonce's seventh solo studio work is a pulsating, sweaty collection of club tracks aimed at liberating a world consumed by ennui

Beyonce will remove a derogatory term for disabled people from her new song "Heated," a spokesperson said Monday, after its use was condemned as offensive by campaigners.

The US pop megastar will re-record the track from her latest album "Renaissance" on which she originally sang the lyrics "Spazzin' on that ass, spazz on that ass."

Co-written with Canadian rapper Drake, the dance track appears to use the word "spaz" in the colloquial sense of temporarily losing control or acting erratically.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, spasticity is a movement disorder involving stiff muscles and awkward movement, suffered by 80 percent of people with cerebral palsy.

Australian disability campaigner Hannah Diviney said the inclusion of the word by Beyonce "feels like a slap in the face to me, the disabled community & the progress we tried to make with Lizzo."

Beyonce's eagerly anticipated seventh solo studio album "Renaissance" was released Friday, drawing mainly positive reviews with its nods to disco and electronic dance.

In an Instagram post published soon after the album's release, Beyonce said creating the album "allowed me a place to dream and to find escape during a scary time for the world.

"A place to be free of perfectionism and overthinking. A place to scream, release, feel freedom."

...

Originally published as Beyonce to remove offensive lyric after disabled community outcry