Brittney Spencer Says Performing with Beyoncé Was a Career-Defining Moment: ‘Don’t Mess Up Next to Beyoncé’ – News

Brittney Spencer

was only waiting for this moment to arise.

The

“Bigger Than the Song”

country star, 36, is remembering the “really defining moment” when she recently performed with

Beyoncé

— her “favorite artist of all-time” — on Christmas Day for Netflix’s


Beyoncé Bowl


.

“Oh, gosh, I think the thing that was mostly going through my head was, ‘Bitch, don’t mess up next to Beyoncé,’ ” Spencer tells PEOPLE of singing

“BLACKBIIRD,”

a reimagining of The Beatles’ 1968 classic “Blackbird,” with Beyoncé,

Tanner Adell

,

Reyna Roberts

and

Tiera Kennedy

. “That was the first thought in my head, and it didn’t really leave until we were done.”

Beyoncé, 43, had recruited the four Black female country artists to sing on “BLACKBIIRD” for her


Cowboy Carter


project, which

won album of the year

at the 2025 Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 2.

They performed the song together live for the first time on Dec. 25 during

Beyoncé’s halftime show medley

at NRG Stadium in Houston.

“I learned a great deal being with [Beyoncé], being with her team and getting a little bit of an inside look into how things run in her world,”

Spencer

says. “Gosh, that was a really defining moment for me.”

The Baltimore native, who now lives in Nashville, hopes the performance was just as special for people watching in the stadium and at home.

“I feel like while we were singing, I just hoped that anybody watching would see a part of themselves in all of this and feel some encouragement because that’s exactly what I felt standing next to all of those incredibly beautiful and talented women,” Spencer explains.

“It felt like a moment that we all could share and I’ll never forget it,” she adds. “But I know it meant a lot to people, especially a whole lot of Black girls who know the story behind the song now thanks to Beyoncé.”

Paul McCartney

has often discussed how “Blackbird,” which he and

John Lennon

wrote in the ’60s, was inspired by the American Civil Rights Movement — specifically the Little Rock Nine, the nine Black teenagers who faced discrimination after they enrolled in a formerly all-white high school in 1957 after the ruling of

Brown vs. Board of Education.

“I was sitting around with my acoustic guitar and I’d heard about the civil rights troubles that were happening in the ’60s in Alabama, Mississippi, Little Rock in particular,” McCartney

told

GQ


in 2018.

“I just thought it would be really good if I could write something that if it ever reached any of the people going through those problems, it might give them a little bit of hope,” he continued. “So, I wrote ‘Blackbird.’ ”

The now 82-year-old singer added that in England a “bird” is a “girl,” so he used “Blackbird” as a metaphor for “Black girl.”

Spencer is “happy and honored” to play a role in Beyoncé’s new version.

“It’s a beautiful thing that she was bringing in so many new Black country artists to be a part of this iconic album,” she tells PEOPLE of

Cowboy Carter

.

“It was so genius and so generous, and it’s an honor to be a part of the story of that record because I really do think it has such a cultural imprint.”

“It’s more than just this really cool opportunity that I get to sing with my favorite artists,” Spencer emphasizes. “There was a cultural mission with this, and I am honored that I got to be a part of that.”