Grace Jones joins Beyoncé's Renaissance after rejecting 'temporary attention' from pop collaborations

Beyoncé and Grace Jones? Together? On one song? Renaissance has officially revived our weary souls — especially after the latter once rejected the idea of collaborating with contemporary pop stars.

The legendary performer joins Bey on the Renaissance track "Move" after previously writing in her 2015 memoir, I'll Never Write My Memoirs, that she rejected the idea of working with a new generation of artists simply for clout.

"You can get sidetracked. A hurricane can wash you away. Trends comes along and people say, Follow that trend. A big act emerges, and the advice comes in: Why don't you follow them? Even if it was a trend you might have set in motion 30 years ago, and you don't really want to do it all over again," Jones wrote. "There's a lot of that around at the moment. Be like [Beyoncé's] Sasha Fierce. Be like Miley Cyrus. Be like Rihanna. Be like Lady Gaga. Be like Rita Ora and Sia. Be like Madonna. I cannot be like them, except to the extent that they are already being like me."

Jones continued, recalling that one of the singers on that list came to her and asked if she wanted to collaborate.

"Everyone around me is going, You have to do it, you have to do it, it will be so good for you, it will introduce you to a whole new audience, you will make a lot of money," Jones wrote. "I had to put my foot down before I suddenly found myself pretending to take risks, singing something stupid with her in some cheap, surreal setting. No! It will be good for her; she will draw from everything I have built and add it to her brand, and I will get nothing back except for a little temporary attention. No one could believe that I said no, but I am okay on my own. I am okay not worrying about a new audience. If the f--- don't feel right, don't f--- it."

Representatives for Jones did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment.

On the 2022 track, Beyoncé roars, "You have to move, move, move, move, skirt off, make room," while Jones sings in the background. "Stampede coming through, big boss on the move," the former Destiny's Child singer continues.

Elsewhere on Renaissance, Beyoncé samples the Queen of Disco, Donna Summer, on the album closer "Summer Renaissance," a banger that includes sounds first heard in the late performer's 1977 smash "I Feel Love." The album's lead single, "Break My Soul," also interpolates the '90s Robin S. house hit "Show Me Love," which reached No. 5 in the United States upon its initial release.

In an emotional letter to her fans, Beyoncé dedicated the album to the "fallen angels" of club culture, after being influenced by Black artists who popularized various genres of dance music in the '70s, '80s, and '90s. She specifically praised her Uncle Jonny, however — a gay man who helped raise her when she was a child.

"He was my godmother and the first person to expose me to a lot of the music and culture that serve as inspiration for this album," she wrote. "Thank you to all of the pioneers who originate culture, to all of the fallen angels whose contributions have gone unrecognized for far too long. This is a celebration for you."

Renaissance is out now. Listen to "Move" above.

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