Diane Warren apologises after appearing to ‘shade’ Beyoncé over Renaissance album collaborators

Songwriter insisted she meant ‘no disrespect’ with her original tweet

Diane Warren has apologised after appearing to “shade” Beyoncé over her album Renaissance.

The songwriter is responsible for penning tracks such as Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time”, and boasts 13 Oscar nominations for her soundtracks.

However, on Monday (1 August), Warren infuriated Beyoncé fans as she tweeted: “How can there be 24 writers on a song?”

Despite her insisting that her tweet wasn’t “meant as shade” and that she was “just curious”, fans theorised that Warren was criticising Beyoncé’s new album Renaissance, which was released last week.

“You mean how does our (Black) culture have so many writers, well it started because we couldn’t afford certain things starting out, so we started sampling and it became an Artform, a major part of the Black Culture (hip hop) in America. Had that era not happen who knows. U good?” one reply read.

In response, Warren said: “I didn’t mean that as an attack or as disrespect. I didn’t know this, thank U for making me aware of it. No need to be mean about it.”

Later on Monday (1 August), Warren offered a public apology.

Warren’s original tweet (Twitter)

“Ok, I meant no disrespect to @Beyonce, who I’ve worked with and admire,” she wrote. “I’m sorry for the misunderstanding.”

She added to Rolling Stone: “I love Beyoncé’s new album... Every collaborator who worked on this record should be celebrated.”

Her subsequent apology (Twitter)

On Monday, Beyoncé announced that she would be removing an ableist slur from the track “Heated” on the album.

You can read The Independent’s review of Renaissance here.