Paul McCartney praises Beyonce’s version of “Blackbird.” | Image: Facebook/Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney applauded Beyonce‘s cover of one of The Beatles’ most popular songs, “Blackbird,” and called it a “magnificent” version.
“Blackbird” is one of the songs that McCartney wrote for The Beatles. On Facebook, the award-winning musician thanked the “Single Ladies” singer for bringing a new touch to his song and encouraged everyone to listen to it.
“I am so happy with Beyoncé’s version of my song ‘Blackbird.’ I think she does a magnificent version of it and it reinforces the civil rights message that inspired me to write the song in the first place. I think Beyoncé has done a fab version and would urge anyone who has not heard it yet to check it out. You are going to love it!” he wrote.
McCartney shared his recent interaction with Beyonce as well as the inspiration behind it that drove him to write the song.
“I spoke to her on FaceTime and she thanked me for writing it and letting her do it. I told her the pleasure was all mine and I thought she had done a killer version of the song,” he said.
“When I saw the footage on the television in the early ’60s of the black girls being turned away from school, I found it shocking and I can’t believe that still in these days there are places where this kind of thing is happening right now,” added the Beatles member.
“Anything my song and Beyoncé’s fabulous version can do to ease racial tension would be a great thing and makes me very proud.” concluded McCartney.
Beyoncé’s cover of “Blackbird” is one of the songs on her new album “Cowboy Carter.” As of this writing, the song has gathered almost 13 million streams on Spotify.
Melba Pattillo Beals, a member of the group Little Rock Nine who integrated Central High School and whose story had inspired the track “Blackbird,” said in a new interview that Beyonce’s version of the song “awakens so much” in her.