Beyoncé’s new album to feature cover of classic song by The Beatles
As Beyoncé prepares to embark upon the next chapter of her career, the former Destiny’s Child member has revealed plans to cover The Beatles on her upcoming album Cowboy Carter.
The expansive record, set for release on March 29th, features a total of 27 tracks and boasts a running time of close to 90 minutes. Over the course of the LP, Beyoncé will also be delving into the arena of covers, offering up new versions of ‘Jolene’ by Dolly Parton and ‘Blackbird’ by The Beatles.
Furthermore, Knowles has enlisted favours from famous friends who she will collaborate with across the album. The pop superstar teams up with Shaboozey on ‘Spaghetti’, Post Malone will provide a helping hand on ‘Levii’s Jeans’ and Beyoncé will also collide with Miley Cyrus on ‘II Most Wanted’.
Additionally, in a unique spin, Knowles is presenting the forthcoming record in the style of a country radio station, which means she requires assistance from DJs. Thankfully, Parton, Willie Nelson and Linda Martell have all offered their services to KNTRY Radio Texas.
‘Blackbird’, which originally featured on 1968’s White Album, was penned by Paul McCartney about the civil rights movement in America. “I had in mind a black woman, rather than a bird. Those were the days of the civil rights movement, which all of us cared passionately about, so this was really a song from me to a black woman, experiencing these problems in the States: ‘Let me encourage you to keep trying, to keep your faith, there is hope,’,” he once said of the creation.
On McCartney’s mind when he wrote ‘Blackbird’ was the nine Black students in Little Rock who, in 1957, enrolled a previously exclusively white school. When he performed in the Arkansas city in 2016, two of the Little Rock nine, Elizabeth Eckford and Thelma Mothershed Wair, were in attendance and had the song dedicated to them by the former Beatle.
While Beyoncé has never spoken publicly about her love of The Beatles, McCartney was pictured with her husband, Jay-Z, in attendance at her headline show at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London last summer.
Notably, McCartney also teamed up with Jay-Z and Linkin Park for a performance at the Grammys in 2006, which saw the eclectic acts interpolate The Beatles song ‘Yesterday’ into ‘Numb/Encore’.
Additionally, in 2013, McCartney said Beyoncé was the benchmark when it came to live shows, telling NME: “If I’m gonna do a tour I like to go and see what other people are doing. I don’t wanna bring my tour out and be amazingly old-fashioned. So if people are going, ‘Oh man, Beyonce, she was killer!’ I like to go there and go, ‘Yeah, we can do better than this.’”
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