Beyonce accused of ‘robbing’ her signature booty shake from ‘90s boy band 911: ‘We did it first’
LONDON, ENGLAND: The popular boy band of the '90s, 911, has claimed Beyonce “robbed” them of their famous dance move and made it her own!
The 43-year-old performer and talented dancer has inspired thousands of young people to emulate her dance moves. However, according to the latest development, Queen Bey might have drawn inspiration for her signature booty-shaking dance move from a surprising source.
Appearing on the BBC documentary ‘Boybands Forever’, the British boyband 911 said the ‘Crazy in Love’ singer “robbed” them of their dance move, per Daily Mail.
911 claims Beyonce drew inspiration from their music video
The British boyband comprising of Lee Brennan, Jimmy Constable and Simon 'Spike' Dawbarn, was formed in 1995. Within five years, they had ten singles in the UK Top 10 chart as well.
The famous group even collaborated with Beyonce’s Destiny’s Child for a TV show in the late 1990s. At the same time, they famously released their 1997 hit ‘Bodyshakin’ where they introduced a bodyshaking choreography in their performance.
911’s Spike is now revealing that the song that reached the top spot of UK Top 10 also fascinated the multiple Grammy winner.
Recalling the experience, Spike shared, “There's something about that move... we did a TV show with Destiny's Child. We performed and we did 'Bodyshakin' and Beyonce was like 'Show us that move! Keep doing it'."
The musician further revealed that they complied with the ‘Halo’ singer’s wishes.
“And me and Jimmy were just stood there, doing the move because if Beyonce asked you, you did it!” revealed Spike. He added, “So when you watch Beyonce videos doing the booty shake I'm like 'Ah, she robbed it!' We did it first!”
While Spike claimed their dance moves apparently inspired Beyonce, the songwriter of ‘Bodyshakin’ John McLaughlin dished it was Spike and Jimmy’s eclectic dancing skills that inspired the song.
Speaking about the inspiration behind the song, McLaughlin shared, “Spike and Jimmy were fantastic dancers. It wasn't even dancing, it was acrobatics…”
“So I was like OK, let's give them a song that's a themed song,” added the songwriter before noting, “We wanted it to sound like a dance. A word that just sticks in your brain. When 'Bodyshakin' came, I thought ah that's it!”
More accusations against Beyonce of copying dance moves
While Spike playfully talks about Beyonce "robbing" their dance moves, this is not the first time that she has been accused of copying dance moves.
Previously, when Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies’ came out in 2008, several fans pointed out the similarities between her moves to Gwen Verdon’s steps from Bob Fosse’s ‘Mexican Breakfast’.
In 2017, Beyonce, however, acknowledged getting inspiration from ‘Mexican Breakfast’, when she appeared on ‘106 and Park’.
The ‘Cuff It’ star shared, "I saw on YouTube—It's these three ladies, and one of them is Bob Fosse's wife, who's this choreographer, and they're doing 'Walk it Out.' ...It's one take, and it's black and white. I thought, 'Wow, how amazing would that be now?' The video has so many different cuts and different takes. Just to see a nonstop dance video, one take, all the way through," per Newsweek.
This resulted in her ‘Single Ladies’ which has since then become one of her iconic hits.
In 2011 too, the songstress was accused of “plagiarism” when Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker claimed Beyonce used several of her dance moves for ‘Countdown’.
De Keersmaeker spoke with a Danish blog where she claimed that she was not asked permission by Beyonce’s label to use the dance moves.
She shared, “I didn't know anything about this. I'm not mad, but this is plagiarism.”
