Singer and pop star Taylor Swift was recently named Time Magazine’s Person of The Year. 2023 has been a monumental year for the singer-songwriter who became the center of attention for her highly acclaimed and commercially successful concert film Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. The film became the highest-grossing concert film of all time.
Swift has been in the industry for almost two decades and has been regarded as one of the most influential artists of the generation. But that monicker has been the result of years of work and some widely public trials over her personal life. One of the biggest moments of her career was the ‘Kanye incident’ which she revealed adversely affected her.
Also read: “But why… What did she do?”: Taylor Swift is TIME’s Person of the Year, Fans are Equally Confused
What Happened Between Taylor Swift and Kanye West?
An up-and-comer at the time, Taylor Swift won the 2009 MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video for the song You Belong With Me. One of the highlights of her career, as Swift went to receive her award on stage and began her speech, rapper Kanye West crashed the stage and snatched the mic from her.
West stated the infamous lines, “I’ma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!” The crashing came as a shock to Swift, who was not aware that West was planning on doing it. The incident also became a popular meme and has been referenced many times to this day. Later that year, Swift revealed that West had apologized to her.
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However, despite the apology, the apparent feud was not over as Taylor Swift released a song called Innocent, which reportedly contained lyrics referring to West’s behavior. In response, West too released a song named Famous, which explicitly contained the lyric “I feel like me and Taylor might still have s*x, why? I made that b*tch famous.”
The music video for the song also contained a sculpture of Swift lying on a bed n*de along with other celebrities. The song and video became a subject of controversy as Swift revealed that she had not approved of the song while West and his then-wife Kim Kardashian said that she did. Years later, the two artists revealed that the feud had ended.
Taylor Swift Recalled Her State Of Mind After The Incident
The Kanye West feud was one of the career-defining moments for Taylor Swift, who faced a public controversy following a video released by Kim Kardashian, claiming that the pop star had approved of the lyrics in West’s song. The claim was refuted by Swift, and it was later revealed that the video posted was edited.
Swift reacted to the feud by disappearing from the public eye for a year and releasing the album Reputation. A song called This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things also had lyrics hinting at the feud. Recently, in Time Magazine’s Person of the Year article, Swift revealed the state of mind she was in after the public feud with West.
“You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call…That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before. I moved to a foreign country. I didn’t leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls. I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard.”
The pop star has since revealed that she is over the feud and the incidents. Kanye West has been under fire for the past year due to his bizarre reactions to his divorce with Kim Kardashian.