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Singer Beyoncé: 24 songwriters for "Alien Superstar"?
Photo: Eduardo Munoz / REUTERS
If you put the question like this, it sounds a bit like the beginning of an East Frisian joke: Why does Beyoncé need 24 people to write a song?
But the answer is too complex for a single punch line - and is emotionally charged, as the US songwriter Diane Warren had to notice when reacting to a tweet.
Diane Warren is undisputedly a force in her field.
She has written nine songs that made it to number one in the US singles chart – including evergreens such as Aerosmith's “I Don't Want to Miss a Thing”, Toni Braxton's “Un-Break My Heart” and “Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now« by Starship.
So far, the ballad specialist seemed to be particularly annoyed that despite 13 nominations, she never received the Oscar for best film song.
(In 2022 there was an honorary Oscar as a consolation.)
But on Monday, Warren tweeted, "How can there be 24 writers on a song?"
— and captioned the tweet with an eye-roll emoji.
A few days earlier, Beyoncé had released her new album »Renaissance«, which has dominated discussions on the US music scene ever since.
For all songs, several composers and authors are named in the small print;
there are actually 24 names in the album credits for the title »Alien Superstar«.
Fifteen minutes later, Diane Warren hastily added that her tweet wasn't meant as criticism, she was just curious.
But it was too late, and numerous Beyoncé fans responded in support, including personal attacks against the 65-year-old songwriter, pointed remarks about the disappointment at the Oscars and allegations that Warren had stolen lines of text himself.
After several leads, Warren admitted that some of the names were being mentioned because they are responsible for a track sampled in Beyoncé's song.
This concerns three very specific recordings: the house song »Unique« from the Danube Dance project by Austrian producer Peter Rauhofer with singer Kim Cooper, a speaker from the deep-house classic »Moonraker« by Foremost Poets, and an excerpt from one Interview with the founder of the National Black Theater in Harlem, Barbara Ann Teer.
»Collaboration is a skill that many fail to master«
When asked by a Twitter user why someone like her, who has been in the music business for around 40 years, doesn't know how things work with the samples, Diane Warren replied: "Because I don't use them".
In addition, Warren composed most of her songs alone - only on a few titles did she work with other songwriters such as Albert Hammond or Desmond Child.
"When I write with other people, it's a different matter," she once said in an interview, "you have to make compromises, which I have problems with."
Warren says she almost never lets anyone into her Hollywood workspace;
when she travels she always has a keyboard with her.
Activist and author Raquel Willis, among others, explained in the replies to Warren's tweet that a songwriting process can also proceed in a completely different way, far removed from any single genius cult.
Samples, quotes, references and influences are important in all artistic aspects.
"Collaboration is a skill that many fail to master," Willis continued, noting that it is "a white, capitalist, patriarchal notion" that brilliance can only come from isolation.
Terius Nash, who has been one of Beyoncé's most important music production partners under the stage name The-Dream for years - and is also listed as a co-producer on "Alien Superstar", added some music-historical context.
The-Dream points out that in the (black) hip-hop culture, sampling was originally developed because certain things (studio musicians or studio time, for example) could not be afforded.
An art form developed from this.
Warren thanked her for the clarification that she didn't know anything about it.
The role of club culture and dance music in African American communities is one of the themes that runs through Beyoncé's album Renaissance.
But the large number of mentions in the credits probably also has to do with a certain caution that prevails in the music business after copyright judgments such as that against Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke.
As a precaution, you give away a small proportion of the income from the outset.
The musicians from Right Said Fred are named as co-creators of "Alien Superstar" because Beyoncé rewrites the "I'm too sexy for my shirt" from the British party hit in her song "I'm too classy for this world". .
How exactly the process of creating a Beyoncé song works cannot of course be reconstructed.
But the selection of the collaboration partners might indicate which sounds, which styles the artist was looking for.
The 24 participants in »Alien Superstar« include British electronic musicians such as Luke Solomon and Labirinth, as well as alternative rapper 070 Shake and soul singer Leven Kali.
Honey Dijon, a black trans woman from Chicago who is a successful house DJ in New York and Berlin, apparently played an important role.
"Sorry for the misunderstandings"
At the beginning of the year, Taylor Swift also emphasized that such a collaboration, access to influences and external inspiration still results in a singular creative achievement write.
Just as Albarn apologized at the time, Diane Warren also regretted "the misunderstandings" surrounding her testimony.
In a separate tweet, Warren said she didn't mean to be disrespectful to Beyoncé, whom she admires and has worked with.
Beyoncé also felt on Monday that even in a collaborative work process everything ultimately falls back on the artist, whose name is written in large letters on the front of the album: activists for the rights of people with disabilities denounced the use of a word with discriminatory connotations in the text of a other »Renaissance« songs.
Beyoncé reacted - as did her colleague Lizzo before in a similar case - and decided to change the relevant passage.
Of course, outsiders can't tell who of the ten people named in the »Heated« credits (including Drake) was responsible for the offensive choice of words.
Feb