Who is Keri Hilson? Details explored as singer shares her regret in releasing Beyoncé diss track

Keri Hilson has expressed regret for seemingly dissing Beyoncé in the 2009 remix of her Turnin’ Me On track. Hilson, 42, is an R&B singer responsible for some of the smash hits in 2009 and 2010, including Pretty Girl Rock, Knock You Down, and Energy.

The American singer is setting records straight that she wasn’t directly responsible for the infamous lyrics of the Turnin’ Me On Remix. In an interview with The Breakfast Club on April 9, 2025, Hilson revealed that she didn’t want to include the verse written by Ester Dean when she first heard them.

The verse read:

"Your vision cloudy if you think that you’re the best / You can dance, she can sing, but she need to move it to the left, left / She need to go have some babies. She needs to sit down, she fake / I ain’t turning it off, I’m stay turning it on. Go ‘head and tell these folks how long I’ve been writing your songs,"

Many fans construed the “To the left, left” lyrics as alluding to Beyoncé and immediately took sides as they set the two artists against each other. It is believed by many that the silent feud between Keri Hilson and Beyoncé affected the former’s career.

In an exclusive report by People, Hilson stated that her plea for the seemingly offending lyrics to be scrapped fell on deaf ears as someone on the creative team wanted to “garner attention.”

She added:

"I never wanted to record it. I definitely never wanted it to come out."

Keri Hilson expresses that she has always been a fan of Beyoncé as she addresses controversial lyrics

The Pretty Girl Rocks hitmaker, in the People interview, stated that she had been a longtime fan of the Single Girls crooner and regretted letting others pressure her into releasing the controversial verse:

"I've been a fan of hers for a very long time," says Hilson. "They're not my words, but I ate it, and I protected people, and I paid for it."

Keri Hilson shared with The Breakfast Club that she released the controversial lyrics to save her debut album, A Perfect World. She claimed that executives who could influence her career were forceful about her, including the lyrics. She admitted that she could have continued to fight, but she didn’t, and that was her mistake:

"My album wasn’t out yet, so it was like, 'You're not coming out if you don’t do this,'" Keri said. "The mistake that I made was not continuing to fight, but I was in tears. I was crying. I was adamant that I did not wanna do that."

Beyoncé never addressed the seemingly “shady” lyrics, and Keri Hilson revealed to People that she wasn’t sure how the former felt about the whole thing.

"I've always wondered what she was told about that, if she was told the truth,"

She added that she "would love the opportunity" to sit down and discuss the matter with Beyoncé:

"I don't know if it will ever happen, but it's something I've dreamt about."

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Keri Hilson announced on March 27, 2025, that she would release a new album, We Need To Talk, on April 18, 2025.

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