Beyoncé is one of those rare artists with a David Bowie level of fluidity—flipping through genres like cards in a deck, tailoring them all to fit her unique voice. By 2025, she’s pretty much done it all: mainstream R&B, alternative soul, pop-rap, house music, Afrobeats, the list goes on. She even went country for 2024’s Cowboy Carter, which wound up with 11 Grammy nods—making her the most-nominated artist in the ceremony’s history.
The singer also has an abundance of rock chops, as demonstrated by her anthemic cover version of Kings of Leon’s 2008 hit “Sex on Fire.” According to Setlist.fm, Beyoncé first tackled the song during a trio of June 2011 shows in France—and she must have enjoyed how those went down; days later, she included the track in her career-spanning set at the British music festival in Glastonbury.
Like many Kings of Leon tracks, the original “Sex on Fire” thrives on a quiet/loud dynamic, with the fist-pumping choruses building on the tightly wound verses. Beyoncé’s take is even more extreme, almost theatrical, in this approach, highlighting that powerhouse voice as the arrangement shifts around her. In the performance footage, her band opens with stabbing, slightly melancholy piano chords and tumbling, airy drums as she writhes around the stage, throwing out wordless “woo”s and melismatic lines. Her take turns out to be a simmering slow-burn—everyone ramps up the energy on the chorus, eventually peaking in a gospel-rock swirl of belted vocal harmonies and dizzying drum fills.
Beyoncé sounds in complete command of her instrument, from sweetly hiccupped crooning to subtle rock growls. Check out how she really digs into “you’re still the greatest / Ooh, you’re still the greatest.” All in all, it feels like a power ballad, heavy on the power. In an interview after the fest, Beyoncé almost seemed like she was floating on a cloud, telling interviewers that she “felt like a rock star” up there. Unsurprisingly, when asked about the “Sex on Fire” cover, she noted that she “love[s] that song.” (The respect is apparently mutual. In 2013, Kings of Leon frontman Caleb Followill told Absolute Radio, “I love Beyoncé,” and drummer Nathan Followill noted, “We’re all big Beyoncé fans.”)
That cover is a big bullet point on Beyoncé’s rock résumé, but it’s not like she’s been a stranger to heavier sounds throughout her career. One of the most notable examples is her bluesy, psychedelic 2016 song “Don’t Hurt Yourself,” which features and was co-written by Jack White. (The track deservedly earned a Grammy nod for Best Rock Performance.)
“You know, I just talked to her and she said, ‘I wanna be in a band with you,’” White told NPR that year with a laugh. “I said, ‘Really? Well, I’d love to do something.’ I’ve always loved her voice—I mean, I think she has the kind of soul singing voice of the days of Betty Davis or Aretha Franklin. She took just sort of a sketch of a lyrical outline and turned into the most bodacious, vicious, incredible song. I don’t even know what you’d classify it as—soul, rock and roll, whatever. ‘Don’t Hurt Yourself’ is incredibly intense; I’m so amazed at what she did with it.”
Let’s hope she goes even further. In August 2025, Rolling Stone speculated that Beyoncé’s next album—the third installment of a planned trilogy—will be a full-blown rock project.
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