Lily Allen criticized Beyoncé’s sonic exploration of country music on “Cowboy Carter,” and now she is facing a raft of social media users exposing her problematic past. The global pop star’s latest project was among the topics discussed on the “Miss Me?” podcast, which Allen co-hosts with Miquita Oliver.
First up on the women’s chopping block was Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” which features an intro from the county music legend and revamped lyrics. “I don’t think the Jolene one’s good,” said Oliver. “It’s very weird that you’d cover the most successful songs in that genre,” quipped Allen.
Oliver further explained, “But I also feel like ‘Jolene’s’ such an excellent song, like I’ve listened to the story of how Dolly Parton wrote it in about 20 minutes like over and over because I just think it’s so genius. And I don’t know, it just felt like a bit standard hip-hoppy under a ‘Jolene’ cover.”
“It’s like let’s, let’s do something with this song,” Oliver continued. “If we’re gonna take it apart and put it back together, I feel like Beyoncé could have done a bit more with it or maybe pick something that was a little less baited to cover.”
The U.K.-based artist agreed with her friend, adding, “Yeah, I just feel like it’s quite an interesting thing to do when you’re like trying to tackle a new genre and you just choose the biggest song in that genre to cover. I mean, you do you, Beyoncé, and she literally is doing her. Or is she doing Dolly?”
Lily Allen’s last U.S. hit was when Bush was in office, so it’s understandable that innovation in an American genre would be hard for her to comprehend.
But here’s Dolly in 2020 saying she wanted Beyoncé to do ‘Jolene’. Then reiterating it in 2022 with Trevor Noah. pic.twitter.com/FUbAqKR3fh— Cowboy Parker𐚁 (@cuddapotato) April 4, 2024
A Beyoncé defender hit back in a tweet that read, “Lily Allen you know what’s weird? Putting ur husband’s penis in blackface and saying it was Azealia Banks.” The explicit image included a wide red-lipped smile adhered to her then-husband Sam Cooper’s member, a gold chain, googly eyes, and a tuft of black afro-like hair. It was shared in July 2013.
At the time, Allen and Azelia Banks were locked in an online feud that began after the rapper called Cooper ugly. Additional context about the blackface moment suggests that the depiction was also inspired by a golliwog rag doll, which was used as an offensive caricature in the 19th century.
Allen’s video for the 2014 song “Hard Out Here” was also mentioned. In some scenes, she scrubbed rims at a kitchen sink. In another, she was surrounded by Black female backup dancers rump-shaking in bikinis, and in others, the dancers had champagne poured on them, smoked cigarettes, had money shoved into their tops, and used a Rolls-Royce as a prop to gyrate on as Allen sang, “It’s hard out here for a b—ch.”
She was called out by critics, including The Guardian contributor Joe Bishop, for what some deemed as racist imagery. She hit back, tweeting that the video “has nothing to do with race, at all” and that it “is meant to be a lighthearted satirical video that deals with objectification of women within modern pop culture … The message is clear.”
She also claimed that her team simply hired the best dancers and that she rehearsed twerking for two weeks but felt too insecure about her figure and cellulite to be scantily clad and join in on the dancing.
Allen also hit back at “Hard Out Here” critics, specifically a journalist at The Guardian, by penning another song, “URL Badman.” The journalist fired back by writing another piece titled “Lily Allen Wrote a Song About Me Because I Accused Her of Racism.”
Coincidentally, Lilly Allen’s “Hard Out Here” video also addressed body-shaming her as she lay on an operating table with a male surgeon poking and prodding at her midsection. Elsewhere in the podcast, when Oliver shared that Beyoncé’s beauty makes her optimistic about entering her 40s, Allen seemed to allude to the “Black is King” artist leaning on plastic surgery to maintain her youthful appearance.
Bloop 🐝✨
On a recent episode of the “Miss Me?” podcast with Miquita Oliver & Lily Allen, the topic of Beyoncé’s age-defying looks came up & well.. Lily didn’t hold back!
“She does look great; she makes me quite excited about [my] 40s,” Miquita said, to which Allen chimed in,… pic.twitter.com/f03SZr8PIi
— The Cosmetic Lane (@TheCosmeticLane) April 4, 2024
“She’s getting some help,” she quipped. Her co-host hit back by insisting that Beyoncé had not gone under the knife.
“I didn’t say that,” Allen responded. “I’m just saying that, like, you know she’s got a great team of stylists, hair people, you know she works out a lot, she’s got access to the best trainers in the world, like, she knows she’s Beyoncé.”
Despite her name being among X’s trending topics, Allen has only shared an Instagram Story response to the backlash. She also limited the comments of her latest post.
