Beyoncé’s song ‘Hold Up’ started life as a tweet made by Ezra Koenig from Vampire Weekend.
The 32-year-old musician has explained how he came to get a writing credit on the ‘Formation’ singer’s new visual album ‘Lemonade’.
Sharing the unusual story of how his name appeared in the tracklisting, Ezra has made a new Twitter post revealing how an idea he had to change a lyric in the Yeah Yeah Yeahs song ‘Maps’ from "wait" to "hold up" in 2011 started a chain of events which led to him working with Diplo on a potential Vampire Weekend song which and eventually went to Beyoncé.
His post read: "2003 – yyy’s release maps
"2011 – I think "what if it was ‘hold up’ instead of ‘wait?’ & tweet a tweet
"2014 – I’m in the studio with Diplo. I really like this one andy williams loop thing he’d been messing with. we decide to make it a song. i try to think of something to go over it. I write a hook based on the maps tweet, adding new lines/melodies. originally it was "there’s no other God above you, what a wicked way to treat the man who loves you." I figured it was going to be a vampire weekend song but was easily convinced that it could be better/go to a new place as a Beyonce song.
"2015/2016 – lots of other stuff happens to that demo in terms of production/writing. I’m sure that YYY’s were credited. shout out to Diplo and everyone involved ! (sic)"
Although it seems to be a complicated songwriting process, Ezra says it’s just reflective of the modern way music is made.
He added on the social media site: "It’s not that complicated – but some ppl are confused so here’s the short version … songs become tweets, tweets become songs – it’s the way of the world (sic)"
Beyoncé track Hold Up started life as tweet
