I love Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter. I would argue it’s her best album since Lemonade, and I consider Lemonade to be her magnum opus. All that being said, there are a couple of skips on Cowboy Carter, for me at least. Let’s say it this way: while the whole album is brilliant, I’m not “in love” with a couple of the songs. And that’s fine! I’m not trying to make a big thing about it, and my whole personality is not newly devoted to nitpicking Beyonce’s choices. It’s like people don’t realize they can just not be crazy about every single song and keep it to themselves. Speaking of, Lily Allen had to chime in about how much she hates Beyonce’s version of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.”
Lily Allen isn’t the biggest supporter of Beyoncé’s version of “Jolene.” On the Wednesday, April 3, episode of the Miss Me? podcast that Allen, 38, cohosts with her friend Miquita Oliver, the pair shared their thoughts on the 32-time Grammy winner, 42, covering a Dolly Parton classic.
“I don’t think the ‘Jolene’ one’s good,” Oliver, 39, said as they discussed Cowboy Carter — Beyoncé’s eighth studio album.
“It’s very weird that you cover the most successful songs in that genre,” Allen replied.
“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 a little bit like a kind of standard hip-hop beat under a ‘Jolene’ cover,” Oliver said. She added, “It’s like, ‘Let’s do something with this song. If we’re going to take it apart and put it back together. I feel like Beyoncé could have done a bit more with that.”
Allen agreed, 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?” the “Hard Out Here” singer said.
Despite what Allen and Oliver think, the Houston native recently made history as the first-ever Black female artist to top the Hot Country Songs chart with her single “Texas Hold ‘Em” in February. The same track also debuted at No. 2 on the Hot 100 chart.
Following the achievement, she received praise from Parton, 78, herself. “I’m a big fan of Beyoncé and very excited that she’s done a country album,” the original “Jolene” hitmaker wrote in a statement via Instagram on Feb. 22. “So congratulations on your Billboard Hot Country number one single.”
Does Lily Allen not understand that Dolly publicly and repeatedly asked Beyonce to cover “Jolene,” and that Beyonce did so with Dolly’s permission? While I believe Beyonce reworked the lyrics on her own, I also believe that she sought Dolly’s permission to do so and Beyonce didn’t credit herself (Dolly was given sole authorship of “Jolene” on Cowboy Carter). Now, I would have preferred a straight cover as well, because I think so highly of Dolly’s original song. But Beyonce did the thing and she made it her own, and Dolly signed off on everything. So what is Lily complaining about?
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, ‘Cowboy Carter’ cover.