In case you hadn’t heard, Beyoncé has just released a new album. 14 new tracks and 17 videos. Right now it’s at number one in over 100 countries.

I was excited about this album. I spent a lot of my teenage years arguing with my mate Julie about whether Kelly or Beyoncé was a better singer (I was with Beyoncé) while jumping to Survivor’s lyrics ‘You thought that I’d be helpless without you / But I’m smarter’, after bad house parties.

Anyway. Last night I sat down with my partner to watch the first preview video, ‘Drunk in Love’, a song about Beyoncé and Jay Z’s sexy life, featuring Mr Beyoncé himself.

It begins. Black and white film, waves crashing on a beach. Cool. This lasted nearly a minute. My partner got a bit bored. But cool. Then Beyoncé. Dressed in sexy underwear, holding a massive trophy. She sings like a goddess and even if I’m a bit bored of another lingerie ad, she looks happy, like she enjoys her own body. She smiles, dances and sings about how much she likes sex with her partner. All good. I’m glad. And the song is bloody catchy.

Then comes Jay Z. Fully dressed of course and I’m starting to wonder if all male celebrities keep their clothes on while having sex? Kanye? Robin? Flo-Rida? Socks as well? Then he starts to rap and I nearly spit out my drink.

"Did you hear what he said?" yells my partner.

What the f@£k?

Jay Z – What are you saying?

Rewind. Repeat. This is what he says.

“I am Ike Turner…Baby know I don’t play. Now eat the cake, Anna Mae. Said Eat the Cake, Anna Mae". Beyoncé mouthing the words behind him, smiling.

(Image: Mirrorpix)

For those of you who, unlike me, are not obsessed with Tina Turner and did not watch the film of her life story – What’s Love Got To Do With It – almost 100 times, this line is from that film. Tina Turner, real name Anna Mae Bullock, has just released her own music single and two kids come up to her at a diner asking for her autograph. Not her husband Ike's. Ike is jealous. He tells her to "eat the cake" so they can celebrate her new and independent success. She doesn’t want any. He says "Eat the cake, Anna Mae" and when she refuses, he stands up, shoves it in her mouth and across her face. Her friend and backing vocalist tries to stop him. Ike threatens her, beats her and she runs away shouting to Tina Turner, "You are dead if you stay with him."

It’s one of the most humiliating scenes in a film that charts the continuous rape and beating by a jealous and violent husband of his wife; a wife who goes on to become one of the biggest music icons, rock’n’roll icons, female icons, black female icons, and icons of recovery from domestic abuse, of the 20 century.

So. I just don’t get it. I hear ‘it’s just rap music’. But it’s not. There’s a lot of non-violent rap music out there. So why do it?

Talk about being drunk. Talk about enjoying sex. Talk about enjoying your passionate, drunken sex in the kitchen at a house party. All good. It's all in this song. But topping it off with a rap sing-a-long quoting words spat at a woman who was beaten and almost died but who managed to flee (unlike many in her situation), saving herself and kids from a vicious partner AND reinvent a highly successful music career?

What’s love got to do with that?

"Don’t judge the whole album on that song" a tweet tells me. So what do I do? Ignore it and get on with singing along to Flawless or XO instead? I dunno. For me, it’s a bit like being mates with someone who calls my mum a slag but is really kind to my granddad. I don’t think it works that way.

At the end of the day, I realise Beyoncé is a popstar, not a politician. But this is too much. It’s dangerous and it’s insulting – to Tina Turner and to anyone else who has been through the hell that this loved up, happy, middle-upper class, billionaire, celebrity couple seem to be laughing off. And I really wanted to like this album. I have been a fan of Beyonce for a long time. Argh.

I just can’t help thinking now:



#WhatDoesTinaThink?