Listen to Blue Ivy Carter voice the audiobook for Hair Love

Hair Love, the story based on an Oscar-winning short film, has become the debut audiobook by Blue Ivy Carter.

The eight-year-old daughter of Beyonce Knowles-Carter and Jay Z took on narrating Matthew Cherry’s book for audio. The news broke with the audiobook’s release on Tuesday.

Hair Love tells the story of a Black man trying, failing, and trying again to style his seven-year-old daughter Zuri’s hair. Originally a crowd-funded animation, it made history by raising more money for a short film on Kickstarter ever. In 2020, after being picked up for distribution by Sony, Hair Love won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short.

The book was released in 2019. Illustrated by Vashti Harrison, who has also illustrated the Little Leaders series and Lupita Nyong’o’s Sulwe, Hair Love is described as “is an ode to loving your natural hair - and a celebration of daddies and daughters everywhere.” It featured on The New York Times Book Review Children’s Best Sellers list.

While Hair Love isn’t Carter’s first professional appearance behind a mic, having appeared in her mother’s visual album Black Is King and releasing the single Brown Skin Girl, this is her first audiobook. It could prove her opportunity to win a Grammy nomination for the Spoken Word category, adding to the 46 Grammys her parents have collectively won.