Fox News Flash top entertainment headlines 8/1
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Beyoncé confirmed she will remove an "ableist" lyric used in a song on her new "Renaissance" album following online backlash from the disability rights community.
The 40-year-old artist will change the word "spaz" from the 11th anthem on the catalog, "Heated," to another, as yet undetermined, term.
"The word, not used intentionally in a harmful way, will be replaced," a representative for Beyoncé told Fox News Digital.
Beyoncé heard the calls to change an "ableist" and offensive lyric on one of her songs on her new "Renaissance" album. The award-winning artist is pictured at the Grammys in 2021. (Kevin Winter)
BEYONCÉ RELEASES NEW ALBUM ‘RENAISSANCE’ AS SINGER KELIS ACCUSES HER OF SONG 'THEFT'
In the song, which is co-written by rapper Drake, Beyoncé sings the line: "Spazzin' on that ass, spazz on that ass."
The word has often been used to negatively reference people with disabilities.
The 16-track album, which officially debuted on Friday, is her first solo release since "Lemonade" in 2016 and marks her seventh studio album.
"So @Beyonce used the word 'spaz' in her new song Heated," Hannah Diviney tweeted. "Feels like a slap in the face to me, the disabled community & the progress we tried to make with Lizzo. Guess I'll just keep telling the whole industry to 'do better' until ableist slurs disappear from music."
"Yes, and me a Black Autistic person was also called "spaz" growing up to describe ME as irritating and annoying," another user wrote online against people defending the word. "The word is a slur. Let it go and let some compassion for people who have been harmed by that word in instead."
"Language is such a complex thing and words can validly mean different things to different people, but I don’t see why any artist would use a word in their song that causes so much upset to millions worldwide," Callum Stephen wrote.
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"After the outcry from Lizzo using the word "sp@z", I can’t believe that nobody in Beyoncé’s team was aware of how hurtful the word is to many within the disabled community. Surely one of ‘Heated’s 11 writers and 10 producers must have known?"
Just last month, Lizzo listened to the community when she realized a lyric in her song "GRRRLS" was "harmful" and made the decision to change the word as she never wanted to "promote derogatory language."
"This is the result of me listening and taking action," she shared on Twitter. "As an influential artist I'm dedicated to being part of the change I've been waiting to see in the world."
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Fox News' Larry Fink contributed to this report.
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