Beyoncé concluded the final night of her Cowboy Carter tour‘s six-show run at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on Monday, and took to social media to celebrate the moment, while also showing love for one of England’s most influential musicians of all time.
“Thank you, Sir Paul McCartney, for writing one of the best songs ever made,” wrote Beyoncé in an Instagram post. “Every time I sing it I feel so honored.” Beyoncé’s rendition of the Beatles’ White Album classic “Blackbird” was included on her historic, Grammy-winning Cowboy Carter album released last year.
In her post, the singer also included photos of her performing in fringe chaps and a white tee adorned with two blackbirds, crediting McCartney’s daughter, fashion designer Stella McCartney: “it is a full circle moment to wear your beautiful daughter’s design.”
“Thank you, London, for creating unforgettable memories for me and my family,” she wrote, before hinting at her return: “Holla at ‘ya when I come on tour again!”
McCartney previously applauded Beyoncé’s cover of“Blackbird,” stating he was “so happy” with her version. “I think she does a magnificent version of it and it reinforces the civil rights message that inspired me to write the song in the first place,” he wrote wrote alongside a photo of the singers together. “I think Beyoncé has done a fab version and would urge anyone who has not heard it yet to check it out.”
McCartney has long stated that “Blackbird” was influenced by the Little Rock Nine, a group of nine black students who faced racist outrage in 1957 after enrolling in the all-white Little Rock Central High School. Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus called the National Guard to stop the students from entering the school, sparking the Little Rock Crisis.
Rolling Stone‘s Rob Sheffield praised Beyoncé’s “Blackbiird” as a stroke of “revisionary genius that brings the story of ‘Blackbird’ full circle.” “She claims the song as if Paul McCartney wrote it for her. Because, in so many ways, he did…,” Sheffield wrote. “In so many ways, ‘Blackbird’ has always been waiting for this moment to arise. And Beyoncé makes the song rise higher than ever before.”
