Beyoncé is removing what critics are calling an “ableist slur” from her latest song, “Heated,” saying she didn’t “intentionally” use it “in a harmful way.”
The singer stirred controversy following the Friday release of her new album, “Renaissance,” for using the word “spaz.”
“Spazzin’ on that ass,” the 40-year-old Grammy Award winner sang in “Heated,” a track with Drake. While in the United States the word is often used as a slang expression meaning to “lose control,” critics view it as a derogatory term for spastic diplegia, a form of cerebral palsy.
“The word, not used intentionally in a harmful way, will be replaced,” a rep for the singer, who was born Beyoncé Knowles, told ITK in a Monday statement.
“The road to success is always under construction,” the statement said.
Critics, including disability advocate Hannah Diviney, called out Beyoncé, writing in The Guardian that “ableist language” gets “used and ignored all too often.”
“It’s not very often that I don’t know what to say, rendered speechless by ignorance, sadness and a simmering anger born of bone-deep exhaustion. But that’s how I feel right now,” Diviney wrote.
“Disabled people deserve better,” Diviney added, noting that the controversy came just weeks after Lizzo made headlines for apologizing for using the same word in a song.
“It’s been brought to my attention that there is a harmful word in my new song ‘GRRRLS.’ Let me make one thing clear: I never want to promote derogatory language,” Lizzo wrote in a June Instagram post shortly after her tune was released.
Lizzo quickly released an updated version of “GRRRLS” without the offensive term.