Brittney Spencer Calls Performing with Beyoncé a Pivotal Career Moment: ‘You Can’t Slip Up Next to Beyoncé’
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“I gained a lot of insight from being around her,” Spencer shares with PEOPLE, noting that she had the opportunity to observe “how things operate in her world.”
Brittney Spencer had been waiting for this moment to arrive.
The 36-year-old country singer behind Bigger Than the Song reflects on the “truly defining moment” when she performed alongside her “all-time favorite artist,” Beyoncé, during the Netflix’s Beyoncé Bowl on Christmas Day.
“Oh, gosh, the main thing running through my mind was, ‘Girl, don’t mess up next to Beyoncé,’” Spencer tells PEOPLE, recalling the experience of singing BLACKBIIRD—a reimagining of The Beatles’ 1968 classic Blackbird—with Beyoncé, Tanner Adell, Reyna Roberts, and Tiera Kennedy. “That thought stayed with me until we finished.”
Beyoncé, 43, had personally selected the four Black female country artists to feature on BLACKBIIRD as part of her Cowboy Carter project, which went on to win Album of the Year at the 2025 Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 2.
The group performed the song live together for the first time on Dec. 25, as part of Beyoncé’s halftime show medley at NRG Stadium in Houston.
“I gained so much from being around [Beyoncé], working with her team, and getting a behind-the-scenes look at how everything operates in her world,” Spencer shares. “That was truly a pivotal moment for me.”
Originally from Baltimore and now based in Nashville, Spencer hopes the performance resonated just as deeply with those watching—both in the stadium and at home.
“While we were singing, I just hoped that anyone watching could see a reflection of themselves in this moment and feel inspired,” she explains. “That’s exactly how I felt standing beside such incredibly talented and beautiful women.”
“It felt like a shared moment, something we all got to experience together, and it’s one I’ll never forget,” Spencer says. “But more than that, I know it meant so much to so many—especially to Black girls who now understand the story behind the song, thanks to Beyoncé.”
Paul McCartney has often spoken about the inspiration behind Blackbird, which he co-wrote with John Lennon in the 1960s. The song was influenced by the American Civil Rights Movement, particularly the Little Rock Nine—the group of Black students who faced intense discrimination after integrating a formerly all-white high school in 1957 following the Brown v. Board of Education ruling.
Reflecting on the song’s origins, McCartney told GQ in 2018, “I was sitting with my acoustic guitar, thinking about the civil rights struggles happening in the ’60s—especially in Alabama, Mississippi, and Little Rock.”
“I just thought it would be meaningful to write something that, if it ever reached anyone experiencing those struggles, might offer a bit of hope,” he explained. “So, I wrote Blackbird.”
The now 82-year-old musician also noted that in England, the term “bird” refers to a girl, making Blackbird a metaphor for “Black girl.”
Spencer feels “grateful and honored” to be part of Beyoncé’s reimagined version.
“It’s incredible that she brought in so many emerging Black country artists to contribute to this iconic album,” she tells PEOPLE about Cowboy Carter. “It was both brilliant and generous, and I’m honored to be part of a record that carries such cultural significance.”
Spencer emphasizes that the moment was about more than just singing alongside her favorite artist.
“There was a cultural purpose behind this, and I’m truly honored to have played a role in it,” she says.