"But then, who am I to question it?" added the "Smile" singer.
While speaking about the record on her BBC podcast Miss Me? on Thursday (April 4), the British singer-songwriter started by dissecting Bey’s revamped take on the Dolly Parton classic — which finds the “Texas Hold ‘Em” artist singing updated lyrics seemingly about her husband. For instance: “You don’t want no hеat with me, Jolene/ We’ve been deep in love for twenty years/ I raised that man, I raised his kids.”
“I read a comment from Azealia Banks where she was like, ‘Stop talking about Jay-Z as if anyone wants to f–k him,” Allen said, laughing. “Literally, no one’s even looked at him for about 10 years, relax.”
The “Smile” artist went on to knock Bey’s choice to cover “Jolene” on Cowboy Carter, a move that was personally endorsed by the country icon. “It’s very weird that you’d cover the most successful songs in that genre,” Allen mused. “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?”
As far as the Cowboy Carter rollout goes, Allen thinks Bey’s pivot to country has been “quite calculated.”
Discussing how having children affected her career choices, Allen told Radio Times: “My children ruined my career. I love them and they complete me, but in terms of popstardom, they totally ruined it.
“I get really annoyed when people say you can have it all because, quite frankly, you can’t.
“Some people choose their career over their children and that’s their prerogative, but my parents were quite absent when I was a kid. I feel like it left some nasty scars that I’m not willing to repeat on mine.
“I chose to step back and concentrate on them. I’m glad that I’ve done that because I think they’re pretty well-rounded.”
Lily Allen has said that she was recently diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Allen confirmed her diagnosis in an interview with The Times, revealing that she had been diagnosed while living in the USA, where she has resided since 2020.
She told the newspaper that her diagnosis caused her to completely quit using social media – “As soon as I look at it, it can be hours of my day gone,” she said.
The singer is set to appear in her first televised acting role this month in new Sky comedy drama Dreamland, which tells the story of four sisters in Margate (NME)
