Beyoncé’s Songwriter Explains ‘Becky With The Good Hair’
Beyoncé’s fans may finally be getting the answer to the million dollar question of the year. One of Beyoncé’s co-writers on “Sorry,” Diana Gordon, is explaining the mysterious line about “Becky with the good hair.”
Apparently, it’s no one.
“I laughed, like this is so silly. Where are we living? I was like, ‘What day in age from that lyric do you get all of this information?’ Is it really telling you all that much, accusing people?” she said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
Gordon went on to explain that the explosive reaction from the line may actually have caught Beyoncé off-guard.
“I don’t think [Beyoncé] expected it,” she said. “I saw her at her Formation tour. She had a pajama party; we laughed, we danced, we hugged it out. But I didn’t say much about it at the time because I wanted to give her space. The idea started in my mind, but it’s not mine anymore. It was very funny and amusing to me to watch it spread over the world. If it’s not going to be me saying it, and the one person in the world who can say it is Beyoncé, I was f*cking happy. With Beyoncé, I feel like the songs we worked on were specifically for her.”
The line in question comes from Beyoncé’s song, “Sorry” off of her latest visual album, Lemonade. The LP explores themes of distrust and infidelity. In the song, Beyoncé sings, “He only want me when I’m not there, he better call Becky with the good hair.”
Fans immediately thought the album was autobiographical and started looking for Jay Z’s elusive mistress aka “Becky with the good hair.”
At first the BeyHive thought it was Rita Ora, a British singer signed under Jay Z’s Roc-A-Fella imprint. But she quickly denied it. However, despite being in the mix of controversy, Ora recently had nothing but good things to say about her boss and his wife.
“I’m still happy I’ve had this incredible experience. Jay is one of my idols and Beyoncé is obviously the queen of life,” she said. “I’ll never not appreciate the experience I had with them and the things I’ve seen.”
But fans weren’t satisfied with not knowing who “Becky” is. Rachel Roy got the brunt of the BeyHive’s vitriol next after the fashion designer posted a photo of herself that claimed she had “good hair.” She later denied it after being cyber bullied for weeks.
“I want to put the speculation and rumors to rest. My Instagram post was meant to be fun and lighthearted, it was misunderstood as something other than that,” she said. “There is no validity to the idea that the song references me personally. There is no truth to the rumors.”
Beyoncé’s Lemonade certainly had fans in a tizzy with its poignant storytelling and imagery of black women and the struggles faced with lovers. Since its release, the album has gained much high praise.
Later in Gordon’s interview, she also gave some insider information on how Beyoncé comes up with bodies of work.
“Beyonce is a scientist of songs,” she said. “I’ve never seen anyone work the way she works. She definitely changes the song structures. She can take two songs, say, “I like two lines, I like the melody then let me use that for a verse and a bridge and write the whole middle.” It’s more of a collaboration. You never know what she’ll like. I came to her with a bunch of songs and she was like, ‘I like that verse, I like the idea.’ But she definitely doesn’t take things as is, at least not from me.”
[Photo by Isaac Brekken/Getty Images]
