Swift Taylor
The singer is involved in a new Hollywood feud
SHE’S ONLY JUST RECONCILED with Katy Perry, but it appears Taylor Swift just can’t get away from drama. On June 30, the ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ singer took to her Tumblr page to reveal she had spent years trying to gain ownership of her music from Big Machine Records. Swift, 29, claimed she was told she could only buy the records back over time if she signed a new contract. “I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, [founder] Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future.”
Upon learning that Scooter Braun, who manages Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber, had acquired her music catalogue for $430 million (US $300 million), the star let loose. “When I left my masters in Scott’s hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter.” For her fans’ reference, Swift included an August 2016 Instagram post shared by Bieber showing a FaceTime call between himself, Braun and Kanye West – at the time, Taylor was feuding with West over the lyrics of his song ‘Famous’. Bieber captioned it
“Taylor Swift what up”. She wrote on the image, “This is Scooter Braun, bullying me on social media when I was at my lowest point.”
Bieber took to Instagram to take the blame for the “bullying” post. “Scooter has had your back since the days you graciously let me open up for you!” he wrote. “So for you to take it to social media and get people to hate on Scooter isn’t fair.” Also jumping to Braun’s defence was his wife, Yael Cohen Braun, who claimed Swift knew about the deal. “Your dad is a shareholder and was notified, and Borchetta personally told you before this came out,” she wrote. “So no, you did not find out with the world.”
After TMZ reported that Swift’s father, Scott, “has known about the deal for at least a week”, a spokesperson for the singer refuted the claim. “Scott Swift is not on the board of directors and has never been. On June 25, there was a shareholder phone call that Scott Swift did not participate in due to a very strict NDA that bound all shareholders and prohibited any discussion at all without risk of severe penalty,” the rep said. “Taylor found out from the news articles when she woke up before seeing any text from Scott Borchetta and he did not call her in advance.” •