Ariana Grande Can Thank Beyoncé for Not Using This Underrated Song
Longtime Beyhive members know that Beyoncé has a massive musical archive filled with hit songs — many of which have influenced pop culture. However, not all of the songs Bey has recorded over the years have been released under her.
Though there’s a long list of tracks that didn’t make it onto Beyoncé’s groundbreaking albums, one song found its way onto another singer’s hit record — and that artist is none other than the pop princess herself, Ariana Grande.
Ariana Grande’s song ‘R.E.M’ was originally written for Beyoncé
If you’re a fan of Grande, chances are you’ve heard her underrated track, “R.E.M,” off of her 2018 album Sweetener.
Though the song isn’t as popular as the other tracks on the album, such as “God Is A Woman” and “No Tears Left To Cry,” “R.E.M” is still a fan-favorite as many love its dreamy instrumental and clever lyrics.
But there’s more to the dream-like track than meets the eye.
It turns out that before Grande made this banger her own, the song was recorded by the Queen Bey herself, Beyoncé, in 2013.
Fans found out about this interesting fact back in 2018.
Following her cover shoot for Elle magazine, the pop singer gave a sneak peek of the track while playing Song Association, a game in which she was given a word and had 10 seconds to sing that word in a song.
When presented with the word “dream,” Grande began singing the lyrics to “R.E.M.”
“Boy you’re such a dream to me/ Before you speak, don’t move, ’cause I don’t wanna wake up,” she croons in the video.
Shortly after the video was released, a Beyhive fan account revealed on Twitter that “R.E.M” was originally written for Beyoncé — by Pharrell Williams — and was titled “Wake Up” before being passed onto Grande.
“R.E.M”, an upcoming song on @ArianaGrande’s album is in fact a scrapped Beyoncé song, created by Pharrell,” the since-deleted post read, according to iHeart Radio. “Have a listen.”
Ariana Grande admitted to taking elements from Beyoncé’s unreleased demo
After “Wake Up” was cut from the final version of Beyoncé’s self-titled studio album, it was reworked to fit Grande’s sound.
A few days after fans found out that Grande’s song initially belonged to Beyoncé, the “7 Rings” hitmaker revealed that she did incorporate elements of the Grammy-winner’s demo into “R.E.M.”
Though both songs sound the same, Grande explained on Twitter that she used the hook from “Wake Up” in her song because it was “dreamy” and had “to find a home.”
“It’s an entirely new song now but the hook was so dreamy it had to find a home,” she tweeted. “I think it’ll be one of your favs.”
Now that we know that Grande incorporated some Beyoncé into her (widely praised) Sweetener album, we think she deserves even more recognition than she’s already received!
