BLUE IVY WINS FIRST SONG WRITING AWARD AT 7

At just 7 years old, Blue Ivy Carter is an award-winning songwriter, just like her parents before her. Carter, the daughter of iconic pop singer Beyonce and legendary rapper Jay-Z, won the Ashford & Simpson Songwriter’s Award at the 2019 Soul Train Music Awards on Sunday for co-writing her mother’s song, “Brown Skin Girl.”

“Brown Skin Girl” is a hit single from Beyonce’s soundtrack album “The Lion King: The Gift”, which she produced for the remake of Disney’s 2019 movie “The Lion King” in which she also played. The album not only features Beyonce and Carter, it also features many top performers including Jay-Z, rapper Childish Gambino, rapper Kendrick Lamar and many African artists including Ghanaian rapper Shatta Wale and the Nigerian singer Tiwa Savage, among others.

“The Lion King: The Gift” was received very favorably by critics, more so than the film for which it was made. Carl Wilson from Slate Magazine said of the album: “This album is better than mountains, valleys, rivers and savannahs than the movie” and that “it works better if you forget the remake even exists”. The soundtrack was also recently nominated for “Best Pop Vocal Album” at the 2020 Grammy Awards. Beyonce’s “Spirit”, another hit single from the album, received two Grammy nominations for “Best Pop Solo Performance. And “Best Song Written for Visual Media”.

“Brown Skin Girl” celebrates dark and brown-skinned women everywhere; and Carter not only co-wrote the song, she also sang in it with her mother Beyonce, Guyanese singer SAINt JHN and Nigerian singer Wizkid. “Brown Skin Girl” is also Carter’s first songwriting credit and to her credit the song received critical acclaim and even launched the #BrownSkinGirlChallenge on social media, where brunette women and brunettes were posting selfies of themselves embracing the beauty of their skin. Amanda Mitchell from Oprah magazine praised the song for being “shameless and fearless black”. Actress Lupita Nyong’o, who is mentioned in the song, posted an Instagram video of herself dancing to “Brown Skin Girl” with the caption: “Brown Skin Girl. Thank you @Beyonce for that. gift !!”

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