Popstar Taylor Swift has become increasingly popular over the recent years. With over 103.3 million monthly listeners, she has become the number two most listened to artist worldwide. However, after winning ‘Album of the Year’ at this year’s Grammys awards show, Swift faces some deserved backlash.
The first of this backlash started when Swift was announced as the winner of ‘Album of the Year’ when she brought fellow singer and ‘Album of the Year’ nominee Lana Del Ray up on stage with her.
This action was met with mixed responses from Lana fans,Taylor fans and those fans of neither on social media. With many saying it was wrong of Taylor to bring Lana onto the stage as Lana was also nominated for that same award and lost.
Personally, I thought Lana looked uncomfortable, so it probably wasn’t the right move.
Swift is also facing backlash for how she accepted the award. Swift was presented the award by legendary singer Celine Dion, who made a surprise appearance this year after staying mostly out of the spotlight since her announcement in December 2022 stating that she was diagnosed with the rare neurological disorder, stiff person syndrome.
However, when accepting this award Swift did not acknowledge Dion. Swift did not look at Dion when being presented the award, nor was Dion recognized or thanked in her speech. Whereas Miley Cyrus, when accepting her award for ‘Best Record of the Year’ presented by Mariah Carey, acknowledged Carey in both the speech and the acceptance of the award.
Fans were not only upset about Celine Dion not being recognized in Taylor’s speech, but also what Taylor did include in her acceptance speech. She started off her speech with “This is my 13th Grammy, which is my lucky number. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you that.” This felt tone deaf, when you have many artists like Lana Del Ray who have yet to even win one Grammy. Along with her oblivious start to her speech, she continued with announcing her upcoming album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”
I think that the Grammys aren’t the place to make an announcement like this. As a black tie event and very formal, it doesn’t feel right to make that kind of announcement. A different awards show, like the VMAs, that is much more casual, would make more sense.
Many on social media were also upset about this announcement. TikTok user @glutenfreeinnewyork, talks about how after Taylor announced her new album, “the crowd did not seem impressed, they just seemed over it,” and “their eyes looked glazed over.”
Die hard Swifties have been taking to social media, specifically TikTok, defending the artist. Some Taylor Swift fans fail to realize that she is not a celebrity among celebrities, she is their peer. During this speech she talked to this crowd of celebrities like they were her fans, which is just not the case.
Even before the Grammys, Swift received some well earned criticism on social media and in the news after sending a cease and desist letter to 21 year old UCF student, Jack Sweeney for supposed “stalking and harassment.”
Sweeney runs several plane tracking accounts for multiple celebrities over both Instagram and X. This includes celebrities like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Kim Kardashian and Bill Gates.
Sweeney would post real time flight logs of where Swift would be going, how long the flight would be and how many miles the flight would be. These posts also included how much fuel was used, how much the fuel cost, and the CO2 emissions that Swift produced from each flight. One of the flights that got the most attention was a 28-mile flight from Cahokia/St Louis, Illinois, to St. Louis, Missouri.
Swift didn’t like that and had her legal team send a cease and desist letter stating that he was exhibiting “stalking and harassing behavior” and that what he was doing was unlawful.
However, celebrity flight logs are made public domain, anyone can go on the internet and find out where Swift is going and how much carbon she produces. Sweeney posting this information is just helping bring awareness to Swift’s unethical production of CO2. She produces roughly 8.300 tons of carbon a year, which is 1,800 times the average person’s annual carbon emission.
Overall, I think the criticism Swift has been receiving is deserved. Swift should be more self-aware–both about how she conducts herself in front of other celebrities and about her environmental impact. I acknowledge that Swift has done a lot of good with her fame and her money, specifically on the Eras Tour, but that doesn’t absolve her from the recent criticism.
