Miley Cyrus reveals she wrote new single ‘Easy Lover’ for Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album
Cyrus co-wrote the song with Ryan Tedder to be considered for Beyoncé's album, which eventually included the Cyrus duet 'II Most Wanted'
By Gary Grimes
Miley Cyrus has revealed that her upcoming single ‘Easy Lover’ was originally intended for Beyoncé to sing.
The star is due to release the song tomorrow as the final single ahead of her highly anticipated new album Something Beautiful. Cyrus co-wrote the song with OneRepublic frontman Ryan Tedder, who previously penned hits for Beyoncé like ‘Halo’, ‘XO’, and the singer’s GRAMMY winning duet with Cyrus ‘II Most Wanted’.
Speaking to Zane Lowe in a recent Apple Music interview promoting Something Beautiful, Cyrus explained that ‘Easy Lover’ came from the same sessions as ‘II Most Wanted’.
“That one is funny because there’s an ad-lib where I say ‘Tell ’em B’, and that was Beyoncé, because she was taking songs for her country album,” Cyrus admitted.
The ‘Flowers’ singer explained that she first began working on the song whilst making music for her 2021 rock-influenced album Plastic Hearts, and then later adapted it match the sound of Cowboy Carter. “I had written originally that song around Plastic Heart days and never got the production quite where I wanted it. I had written it with totally different verse but the chorus I had always loved,” she elaborated.
“That was around 2020-2021, and then I held on to it and when Beyoncé was looking for songs for her country record, I remembered that chorus and was like, ‘That would work really well for country’, and so I started working on that.”
“She chose ‘Shotgun Rider’, or what do you call it? ‘II Most Wanted’,” the performer revealed. “The demo was called’ Shotgun Rider’. She was like ‘II Most Wanted – that’s us’. I was like, ‘That is so the perfect title’.”
The ‘Wrecking Ball’ songstress, who is also releasing a film to accompany Something Beautiful which will screen in UK cinemas on 27 June, explained that Alabama Shakes frontwoman Brittany Howard offered to perform on the track, thus becoming the ‘B’ Cyrus refers to on the ad-lib.
“I still had ‘Easy Lover’, and so I just was like ‘What am I going to do about ‘Tell em B’? And Brittany Howard’s like ‘I’ll play the guitar on it’, so that’s her playing all that electric guitar,” Cyrus said.
Howard also features on another track on the upcoming LP entitled ‘Walk of Fame’. The pair previously performed together at the Saturday Night Live 50 celebration earlier this year.
‘Easy Lover’ and the album Something Beautiful are released next Friday, 30 May.