Taylor Swift reveals that music producers Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta are preventing her to perform some of her hit songs in the upcoming American Music Awards. The singer/songwriter burst onto the scene in the mid-2000s and has become one of the biggest pop stars all over the world with a string of hits. She initially signed with Big Machine Records for a 12-year-contract which ended with Reputation as her last album with the label. She then joined Universal Music Group, while her future releases are promoted under the Republic Records imprint.
Braun's Ithaca Holdings acquired Borchetta's Big Machine Label Group early this year, and with it is Swift's entire catalog up from her first release up to her sixth album. This has prevented Swift from performing her previous hit songs as she claims that she wasn't aware of the deal between Braun and Borchetta - giving her no time to purchase her masters. Swift found a way to deal with the situation - she announced that she'll re-record her back catalog, but it won't be in time for her much-anticipated American Music Awards performance where she'll be awarded Artist of the Decade.
In lengthy post on Swift's official Twitter account, the singer revealed that Braun and Borchetta are essentially holding her back catalog hostage, and if there won't be any agreement in place, she won't be able to perform a medley of her hits in the past decade in light of her American Music Awards accolade. She also added that a Netflix documentary about her is also affecting by this as the men also refuse to let her use her older music and footage performance. And if she really wants to use her back library, she has to agree on some terms including not re-record her previous hits next year. Read her full message below:
The tweet has been liked for more than 600,000 times, while it has been retweeted for more than 200,000 with #IStandWithTaylor trending worldwide. Swift says that she and her team tried to iron out this matter privately to no avail. So now, she's appealing to the public to help her get her previous catalog before Lover back. She specifically asked her fans to reach out to the other artists signed under Big Machine Label or managed by Braun to help her with this matter. Braun has a string of high-profile artists under his management like Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato.
It's curious if Taylor Swift going public about this difficult situation will work, but considering her massive clout, not to mention the slew of celebrity friends she has, they might be able to put pressure on Braun and Borchetta to let her perform her songs at this year's American Music Awards. As she said in her social media post, those are songs that she didn't only perform but also wrote. Legalities aside, it seems callous and inconsiderate for them to prevent her from performing those on the very same night that she's awarded such an important accolade.
Source: Taylor Swift