Paul on Beyoncè's 'Blackbiird'

04.04.2024
Album artwork for Beyoncé's 'Cowboy Carter' which features Paul's song 'Blackbird'
4 April 2024

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!

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. 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. Anything my song and Beyoncé’s fabulous version can do to ease racial tension would be a great thing and makes me very proud.

Black and white photo Paul McCartney and Beyoncè Knowles Carter at the Grammys
Paul and Beyoncè at the GRAMMY Awards in 2006