Swift ‘not allowed’ to perform her songs
American pop singer and songwriter Taylor Swift has told fans that her upcoming performance at a music awards ceremony is in doubt after two record executives said she could not perform her songs on television.
The 29-year-old appealed to her 85 million followers on Twitter to express their support for her in an ongoing row over the ownership of her songs, and accused the executives of exercising “tyrannical control” over her music.
The comments followed news that she was to receive the “Artist of the Decade” prize at the American Music Awards ceremony later this year.
Swift said she had planned to perform a medley of her hits on the show.
“They claim that would be rerecording my music before I’m allowed to next year,” Swift said in her Twitter post.
The executives, whom Swift identified as Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun, had also refused the use of older music or performance footage for a documentary being made by Netflix about her life, she added.
“The message being sent to me is very clear,” Swift said. “Basically be a good little girl and shut up. Or you’ll be punished.” Borchetta and Braun could not immediately be reached for comment outside of U.S. office hours.
Braun, who represents Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande among others, this year acquired Big Machine Label Group, the Nashville-based record company founded by Borchetta that owns the master recordings of Swift’s past songs.
Swift signed with Big Machine at age 15 and left last November for Universal Music Group, a unit of French conglomerate Vivendi, and released her first album with UMG in August.
“Right now my performance at the AMAs, the Netflix documentary and any other recorded events I am planning to play until November 2020 are a question mark,” she said.
Swift, whose latest album “Lover” has broken records in China, headlined the opening gala for the Nov. 11 Singles’ Day online shopping festival of retail juggernaut Alibaba, which pulled in a record $38.4 billion.