Looks like Beyonce and Jay-Z are getting their oldest daughter to work again. Blue Ivy Carter is providing narration on the new audiobook adaptation of Matthew A Cherry’s Oscar-winning animated short ‘Hair Love.’
Cherry posted the news on his social media Monday morning, including a tiny audio clip of the eight-year-old declaring she is the narrator of the book. ‘Hair Love’ tells the story of a Black father, Stephen, and his daughter, Zuri — and the daughter’s natural hair.
A longer sample featuring lines from the story can be found on Audible.com, where the recording is for sale.
“When my hair is in two puffs, I’m above the clouds, like a superhero!” Blue Ivy says, in character as Zuri. “My hair even does magic tricks. One day Rocky and I were playing outside when along came the rain. From large-small, it went ‘Presto!,’ just like that. There’s nothing my hair can’t do!”
‘Hair Love’ won the 2020 Academy Award for animated short, with Issa Rae providing narration. It was directed by Cherry, Everett Downing Jr and Bruce W Smith.
The short was in the headlines in September after Nickelodeon pulled the new animated series ‘Made by Maddie’ from its Nick Jr autumn schedule. The move came after social-media users complained that the set-up in a first-look video of the show — which had been in the works for about five years — was strikingly similar to that of ‘Hair Love.’
‘Hair Love’ began with a Kickstarter campaign in 2017.
“[O]ut of respect to all voices in the conversation, we are removing the show from our schedule as we garner further insight into the creative journey of the show,” Nickelodeon said in a statement at the time.
Blue Ivy, who will turn nine in January, previously collaborated with her songstress mom, WizKid and Saint Jhn on ‘Brown Skin Girl,’ which earned her BET and NAACP Image awards. Kelly Rowland, Lupita Nyong’o and Naomi Campbell have cameos, along with Blue Ivy, in the video, which celebrates Black women and girls.