A drunk celebrity with a history of being volatile acted out at an awards show: So what? Why was that such a big deal? Why is it so ingrained in our cultural consciousness now, 10 years later?
But the resulting fallout was explosive. What happened at the VMAs helped define Twitter as the conversation driver it is today. It set the narrative that Taylor Swift would always be a pop culture victim, for better or for worse. And the way it has influenced their two images in the decade since follows the lines of major schisms in American culture. In pictures of the red carpet on Getty Wire , you can see the level in the bottle gradually dropping as he makes his way up the carpet and drinks more and more.
Taylor Swift arrived on the red carpet in a fanciful glass pumpkin-shaped Cinderella coach, wearing a glittering silver gown. Taylor was nominated in only one category, Best Video by a Female Artist. MTV has removed the official footage of what ensued from the internet, so most of the videos available online are low-quality bootlegs that people made by aiming cameras at their living room TV screens.
Taylor took the stage in her silver Cinderella gown to accept her award from Shakira. I sing country music. So thank you so much for giving me the chance to win a VMA Award! The crowd began to boo. Kanye shrugged and handed the microphone back to Taylor as he walked offstage, and Taylor took it and stood silently, lips pursed and body tense, as the audience erupted into chaos: some booing Kanye, and some standing on their seats to give Taylor a standing ovation. MTV ushered him out of the building shortly afterward.
It was a time-sensitive problem, because Taylor was scheduled to perform during the next segment of the ceremony. Taylor composed herself and got through her performance with dry eyes and a smile on her face, although her voice is noticeably shakier on the final verse than it is during the prerecorded segment.
When Taylor finished her performance, she wanted to leave with her mother, but Toffler convinced them to stay. Later that night, Kanye posted a public apology to Taylor and all her fans on his blog :. She is very talented! I will apologize to taylor 2mrw. Sorry for that! Furthermore, as the one releasing the song, Kanye bore more responsibility for any rifts it created.
He did not embrace this responsibility as he should have. Nor did he do any work to repair the friendship once it became clear that Swift was unhappy with the song. Rather than call her again to sort the situation out, his initial response was to deny that Swift had a right to be offended, then paint the entire thing as her idea — the biggest lie of the entire saga. When people got a little sick of her, suddenly she was a lying manipulator.
Now that Kanye has flirted with Trumpism and released a string of sub-par albums, while Swift has successfully completed her second woke re-brand , the world is primed to be on her side again.
Which is good, because after painstakingly going over all the evidence, we can conclusively say: In the feud between Taylor Swift and Kanye West, Taylor Swift was right. Already a subscriber? Log in or link your magazine subscription. Account Profile. Sign Out. Who was right? And more importantly, who was wrong? Photo-Illustration: Vulture and Getty Images. Tags: vulture homepage lede music feuds taylor swift kanye west old beef vulture investigates relitigations More.
I had to perform live five minutes later, so I had to get myself back to the place where I could perform. All the other artists who showed me love in the hours following that, I just never imagined there were that many people out there looking out for me. In her well-reviewed monologue song -- which she wrote herself -- she charmingly sent up her image and made the joke everyone was inevitably waiting for about Mr. West stage-crashing. October Appearing on Ellen , West said that following the oversized reaction to "the Taylor Swift incident," he basically had to leave the country, living overseas for a while.
Responding to the "why? And I realize no one wants that to be my job. I'll never go onstage again, I'll never sit at an awards show again, but will I feel conflicted about things that meant something to culture that constantly get denied for years and years and years? I'm sorry, I will. I cannot lie about it in order to sell records. March No bad blood here! The first notes of a thawing relationship appeared when, as part of her fashion spread for Australian Harper's Bazaar , Swift donned a shirt from West's clothing label and rocked it, duh.
Beauty, truth, awesomeness. When asked if he'd take back the original action or the apology, if given the choice, he replied, "You know what? My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was my long, backhanded apology. You know how people give a backhanded compliment? It was a backhanded apology. It was like, all these raps, all these sonic acrobatics. I was like: 'Let me show you guys what I can do, and please accept me back.
You want to have me on your shelves. But years later, Taylor is finding the humor of the incident with Kanye, writing the infamous words he said to her on a jam jar gift to Ed Sheeran. In an interview with Ryan Seacrest the following day, West claimed, "Taylor Swift came up to me right after [Beck won the album of the year Grammy over Beyonce], like literally afterwards, and tells me I should have went on stage.
This is the irony in my life. August Swift covered Vanity Fair 's September issue and gave her version of her slow march toward friendship with West. As for the rumored collaboration: "We haven't planned [any collaboration] But hey, I like him as a person. While it would be West's remarks that ultimately generated the most chatter afterward, it was a big moment when a grinning Swift took the stage to give an award to her onetime foe.
It seemed like everyone in the world knew about our infamous encounter at the VMAs. We have to really — God, we have to curate and cater everything, but we have to make it look like an accident.
You know, the one that was illegally recorded, that somebody edited and manipulated in order to frame me and put me, my family, and fans through hell for 4 years…SWIPE UP to see what really matters.
My gut is telling me that if you make something you love, you should just put it out into the world. ES Money. The Escapist. The Reveller.
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