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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Lifestyle
Louis Chilton

‘While you’re at it’: Monica Lewinsky asks Beyoncé to remove old lyric about her after Renaissance edit

Getty

Monica Lewinsky has repeated her request for Beyoncé to remove a lyric about her affair with former US president Bill Clinton.

The singer-songwriter released her latest record, Renaissance, last week. Yesterday (1 July), her representatives confirmed she would be removing an ableist slur from the lyrics of “Heated” following a backlash from fans.

Lewinsky shared an article reporting on Beyoncé’s decision to edit the lyric, alongside the message: “Uhmm, while we’re at it… #Partition.”

Lewinsky’s affair with Clinton led to the president’s impeachment by the House of Representatives in 1998.

The activist, TV personality and former White House intern was referenced by name in Beyoncé’s 2013 hit “Partition”.

“He popped all my buttons and he ripped my blouse/ He Monica Lewinski’d all on my gown,” the artist sang.

Speaking to Vanity Fair in 2014, Lewinski took objection to the lyric, quipping: “Thanks, Beyoncé, but if we’re verbing, I think you meant ‘Bill Clinton’d all on my gown,’ not ‘Monica Lewinsky’d.”

The recent controversy over ableist language in “Heated” concerns the use of the word “sp**”.

In a statement provided to The Independent, Beyoncé’s representatives said that the slur was “not used intentionally in a harmful way” but would be replaced.

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