Beyonce's new song "XO," off her recently released self-titled album, is receiving a lot of backlash because it consist of audio from the space shuttle Challenger tragedy of 1986.
On January 28, 1986 the Challenger exploded at the Kennedy Space Center 73 seconds after liftoff. Seven astronauts aboard were killed.
"Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction," said NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt while America helplessly witnessed the destroyed shuttle tumble into the ocean on live TV.
Now, 27 years later, the voice of a retired Nesbitt can be heard in the introduction of the video for Beyonce's "XO," a song merely about a bad relationship written and produced by Ryan Tedder and Terius Nash aka "The Dream."
Beyoncé '' XO '' (Official Music Video) New....
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Monday morning, Beyonce made an exclusive statement to ABC in regard to the controversy surrounding the music video for her new song.
The singer suggested that the song "XO" is paying homage to those who were lost in the Challenger.
“My heart goes out to the families of those lost in the Challenger disaster. The song ‘XO’ was recorded with the sincerest intention to help heal those who have lost loved ones and to remind us that unexpected things happen, so love and appreciate every minute that you have with those who mean the most to you," explained Bey. "The songwriters included the audio in tribute to the unselfish work of the Challenger crew with hope that they will never be forgotten.”
Despite her kind words, critics aren't buying Beyonce's excuse.
June Scobee Rodgers, the widow of Challenger Space Shuttle Commander Dick Scobee, said she was "disappointed" in Beyonce's choice to use the clip.
“We were disappointed to learn that an audio clip from the day we lost our heroic Challenger crew was used in the song ‘XO,’” said Rodgers, who is also a founder of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education. “The moment included in this song is an emotionally difficult one for the Challenger families, colleagues and friends. We have always chosen to focus not on how our loved ones were lost, but rather on how they lived and how their legacy lives on today.”
Keith Cowing, a past NASA employee who currently runs the NASAWatch.com website, thinks Beyonce decision was completely insensitive.
“This choice of historic and solemn audio is inappropriate in the extreme," said Cowing. "The choice is little different than taking Walter Cronkite’s words to viewers announcing the death of President Kennedy or 911 calls from the World Trade Center attack and using them for shock value in a pop tune.”
Cowing added that he wants the singer to say sorry for her actions and remove the clip.
Beyonce is from Houston, Texas, the same place where the Johnson Space Center, NASA's astronaut training campus, is located. She has collaborated with the corporation before and even gave a wake up call to STS-135, the last space shuttle flight.
“You inspire all of us to dare to live our dreams, to know that we’re smart enough and strong enough to achieve them,” she told the Atlantis crew back in 2011.
