Taylor swift, one of the most celebrated artists, is an American singer and songwriter. With chart-topping albums, record breaking tours like Eras Tour and 12 Grammy awards, Swift has dominated the music industry and is regarded as a global phenomenon.
Recently, to honor the incredible success of Taylor Swift, Billboard named her the second greatest pop star of the 21st century. Billboard, an American music and entertainment magazine, released a video celebrating the journey of the iconic star as a part of their tribute.
However, in the tribute video, Billboard mistakenly used a controversial clip from Kanye West’s song “Famous”. The clip featured a hyper realistic wax figure resembling Swift nude.
This sparked an outrage among Taylor’s fans and public as it wasn’t just an oversight but rather a painful reminder of an exploitative depiction Swift had previously condemned as “revenge porn”. Fans and critics pointed out that inclusion of such imagery in the tribute video was disrespectful to Swift’s achievements and personal boundaries, considering Swift’s previous vocal stance against Kanye’s musical video.
Released in 2016, Kayne West’s music video “Famous”, featured nude wax figures of several celebrities, including Swift. Although the figures were made of wax, they seemed very realistic. These figures were explicitly displayed, in an intimate and humiliating setting, combined with using the lyrics, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that famous”. Swift publicly condemned the lyrics and imagery, calling it disrespectful and exploitative.
This 2016 “Famous” controversial video was, in turn, made by Kanye because of an ongoing feud between the two stars. The feud started at the VMA event, where Kanye took the microphone from Taylor Swift’s hands interrupting her acceptance speech for Best Female Video.
Fast forward to 2024, fans expressed their outrage on social media following the release of the tribute video by Billboard. One user commented on X, formerly known as Twitter, “Billboard claims to celebrate Taylor’s legacy, but instead they remind us of one of the most degrading moments of her career.” Another one wrote, “This is beyond insensitive. How do you honor someone by using something they condemned?“
The company, based around the top music of musicians, is now forced to apologize to Taylor Swift. Accepting their mistake, Billboard wrote on X, formerly known as twitter,
“We are deeply sorry to Taylor Swift and all of our readers and viewers that in a video celebrating Swift’s achievements, we included a clip that falsely depicted her. We have removed the clip from our video and sincerely regret the harm we caused with this error.”
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