UK pop band Right Said Fred called Beyoncé “arrogant” after claiming that she sampled their 1991 hit single “I’m Too Sexy” for her song “Alien Superstar” without their permission.
“Normally the artist approaches us but Beyoncé didn’t because she is such an arrogant person. She just had probably thought ‘come and get me’ so we heard about it after the fact when you did.” Right Said Fred told The Sun at the 2022 BMI London Awards at The Savoy Hotel on Monday (Oct. 4).
They continued, “But everyone else, Drake and Taylor Swift, they came to us.” Drake sampled their track for his 2021 hit single “Way 2 Sexy,” which features Young Thug and Future. Meanwhile, Swift had sampled the track in her 2017 Reputation lead single “Look What You Made Me Do.”
“To use our melody they need our permission so they send us the demo and we approve it and if so we get a co-write credit. With this Beyoncé thing there are 22 writers it’s ridiculous so we would get about 40 [pounds],” the brothers, whose real names are Fred and Richard Fairbrass added. “We cant stop it. There is nothing we can do. It is s**t. You are going to get into a conversation with someone who has a lot more presence and power and money than we do. And that won’t go well. It’s best to let it go. If you’re not careful you spend your life looking back. We keep looking forward the whole time.”
Beyoncé’s “Alien Superstar” is included in her latest album Renaissance, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart in August. The British stars’ “I’m Too Sexy” spent 21 weeks on the Top 100 chart in 1992, according to Billboard.
Right Said Fred aren’t the only ones that criticized Beyoncé for using their music without their consent on Renaissance. Although she was credited, Kelis called out the “Break My Soul” singer for sampling her 2003 hit single “Milkshake” on the track “Energy.” In an Instagram post, Kelis said “My mind is blown too because the level of disrespect and utter ignorance of all three parties [Beyoncé and writers Pharrell Williams, and Chad Hugo] involved is astounding. I heard about this the same way everyone else did. Nothing is ever as it seems, some of the people in this business have no soul or integrity and they have everyone fooled.” Beyoncé ended up removing the sample from the song.