Diane Warren Apologizes for “Misunderstanding” After Questioning Number of Songwriters on Beyonce Album

Diane Warren has issued an apology after facing criticism for her tweets that seemingly called out the songwriting credits listed on Beyoncé’s seventh studio album Renaissance.

In a tweet shared Monday, Warren posed the question, “How can there be 24 writers on a song?” alongside an eye-rolling emoji. Warren then followed up with another tweet: “This isn’t meant as shade, I’m just curious.”

Warren later tweeted, “Ok, it’s prob samples that add up the ammount of writerrs.”

Though Warren didn’t directly mention Beyoncé in her tweets, the songwriter faced criticism from fans who accused the songwriter for seemingly calling out Beyoncé by referring to one of her songs, “Alien Superstar,” which features over 20 writers on the credits due to the use of samples and interpolations.

One user wrote, “How you’ve been in the game for 80 years and don’t know how samples work?” to which Warren responded, “Coz I don’t use them.”

Roxane Gay also responded to Warren’s initial tweet writing, “Now, now. It was meant as shade. Own it if you’re going to say it.”

The-Dream, who collaborated with Beyoncé on Renaissance, also chimed in, writing, “You mean how’s does our (Black) culture have so many writers, well it started because we couldn’t afford certain things starting out,so we started sampling and it became an Artform, a major part of the Black Culture (hip hop) in America.Had that era not happen who knows. U good?”

In response, Warren wrote, “I didn’t mean that as an attack or as disrespect. I didn’t know this, thank U for making me aware of it. No need to be mean about it.”

Warren, who has also previously worked with Beyoncé and credited as the songwriter for her song “I Was Here,” later issued an apology for her initial tweets, explaining that she “meant no disrespect” to the singer: “Ok, I meant no disrespect to @Beyonce, who I’ve worked with and admire. I’m sorry for the misunderstanding.”

Beyoncé has yet to respond publicly to Warren’s tweets.