Taylor Swift Only Slightly Dragged Scooter Braun At The American Music Awards
In the weeks leading up to this year’s American Music Awards, it sounded like Taylor Swift was going to go full-Carrie White on Scooter Braun and Big Machine the second she stepped on stage. But when Taylor appeared on television last night, you’d barely know she was in the middle of a messy music rights fight.
We all know that Taylor loves a bit of petty live TV revenge, and that her style usually involves calling out her enemy in the most obvious, transparent way possible without actually saying their name. Taylor received six awards last night: Artist of the Year, Favorite Music Video (“You Need To Calm Down“), Favorite Female Artist – Pop/Rock, Favorite Album – Pop/Rock (Lover), Favorite Artist – Adult Contemporary, and Artist of the Decade. She sort of addressed Scooter as she accepted the award for Artist of the Year, but didn’t say his name.
“The last year of my life has had some of the most amazing times, and also some of the hardest things I’ve gone through in my life. Not a lot of them are things that haven’t been public, and I wanted to thank you so much for being the thing that has been a constant in my life. This industry’s really weird, where…you feel like either your stock is up or down, and people either like you or they don’t, or you’re feeling bad about yourself. But the people who hang in there for you are the ones that you will never forget.”
That’s true, you never forget the people that were nice to you. Luckily for Taylor, she’ll also never forget the people who did her dirty, because I’m pretty the desire to smite her enemies is the coal that keeps that little engine chugging along.
When she won Favorite Album – Pop/Rock, she thanked her current label (Universal), saying she “really loves” them, and “allowing” her to make the music she wants to make.
✨ Cheers to @taylorswift13, your #AMAs winner for Favorite Album – Pop/Rock! ✨ pic.twitter.com/PRuerTYeqb
— American Music Awards (@AMAs) November 25, 2019
Before Taylor accepted the award for Artist of the Decade, she performed a few of her songs. Taylor claimed Scooter and Big Machine were blocking her from performing any of her old material, to which Scooter claimed he wasn’t doing such a thing. Well, Taylor got to perform her songs. Before she changed into that pink curtain panel above, she wore a white shirt dress with the names of her previous albums printed on it. She also opened up with, “The Man,” a song with lyrics about how Taylor’s career and life might be different if she wasn’t a girl. For example:
They’d say I hustled
Put in the work
They wouldn’t shake their heads
And question how much of this I deserve
Hmmm…what a not-obvious choice.
The @taylorswift13 performance has begun!#AMAs https://t.co/KdqDAcH9zO pic.twitter.com/xcaf0QL1Px
— Good Morning America (@GMA) November 25, 2019
It didn’t take long for the internet to see a comparison between Taylor’s dress and a prison inmate uniform.
taylor referencing to her previous albums as prisoners has got to be the best part of her performance. #TaylorSwift #TaylorOnAMAs pic.twitter.com/z1KCKGZVyv
— e (@yslglitters) November 25, 2019
Here’s Taylor accepting her award (presented by Carole King). Taylor didn’t have many more subtle jabs at Scooter. She more or less just said that she’s thankful for the award, that she’s had fun in the past ten years, and that she loves her fans and they’re the reason she has a career at all. I’m sure Scooter would have appreciated if she had added, “And please, stop sending death threats in my name – it’s bad for my brand.” But she didn’t, and now Scooter is going to receive homemade DOC uniforms sent to his house with a note reading, “YOU ARE THE WARDEN AND SHE IS THE PRISONER, IN CASE SHE WASN’T CLEAR ENOUGH. SHE’S DINING ON TOILET RAMEN NOODLES BECAUSE OF YOU.”
Here’s more of Taylor arriving to the show last night: