Having sold over 200 million albums worldwide and receiving 32 Grammy Awards, Beyoncé spent the last 30 years sharing her love for genres like hip hop, pop, and R&B. Although an icon in the music industry, Beyoncé recently expanded her reach into country music with her newest album, Cowboy Carter. And while the singer gained high praise from fans and other artists like Dolly Parton, not all shared the same feeling. Receiving some criticism for her new album, it seems that singer Lily Allen isn’t a fan of Beyoncé covering one of country music’s top songs, “Jolene.”
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Hosting the Miss Me? Podcast with Miquita Oliver, the topic of Cowboy Carter eventually entered the conversation. Not holding back, Oliver admitted to “Jolene” not being one of her favorite songs to be covered by Beyoncé. Allen seemed to feel the same way, noting, “It’s very weird that you cover the most successful songs in that genre.”
[RELATED: Michelle Obama Credits Beyoncé for Redefining Country Music]
Diving deeper into their hesitation surrounding Beyoncé and “Jolene”, Oliver expanded on her concerns. “I also feel like ‘Jolene”s such an excellent song. Like, I’ve listened to the story of how Dolly Parton wrote it in about 20 minutes, like, over and over, because I just think it’s so genius. And I don’t know, it just felt a little bit like a kind of standard hip-hop beat under a ‘Jolene’ cover.” She continued, “It’s like, ‘Let’s do something with this song. If we’re going to take it apart and put it back together. I feel like Beyoncé could have done a bit more with that.”
Dolly Parton Breaks Silence On “Jolene” And Beyoncé
Agreeing with the statement, Allen added her thoughts on the cover, insisting, “I just feel like it’s quite an interesting thing to do when you’re like trying to tackle a new genre and you just choose the biggest song in that genre to cover. I mean, you do you, Beyoncé, and she literally is doing her. Or is she doing Dolly?”
While Oliver and Allen found issue with Beyoncé, Dolly showered the singer with praise. And given that the country star was the one behind “Jolene”, it silenced all the backlash. “I’m a big fan of Beyoncé and very excited that she’s done a country album.” Dolly added, “So congratulations on your Billboard Hot Country number one single.”
(Photo by John Phillips/Getty Images)
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