Do they still have “Bad Blood”?
Billboard is offering an apology to Taylor Swift after the entertainment giant used an image of her wax figure from a Kanye West music video to highlight her achievements.
“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,” Billboard wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.
“We have removed the clip from our video and sincerely regret the harm we caused with this error.”
In the video montage celebrating Swift’s accolades after being named the second-greatest pop star of the 21st century, Billboard mistakenly included a clip from West’s controversial 2016 “Famous” music video, which featured a naked wax figurine of the pop star laying in the rapper’s bed.
While Billboard removed and reposted the video celebrating Swift, the apologetic statements comes after receiving backlash online, as Swifties slammed the clip as “problematic,” “nasty” and “a slap in the face.”
Meanwhile, according to Time, hashtags such as #BillboardIsOverParty and #BillboardApologizeToTaylor trended on X.
The Post has reached out to Swift’s representatives for comment.
The music video and song — in which he says, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/ Why? I made that bitch famous” — is part of a yearslong feud between West and Swift dating back to 2009.
Swift took issue with the lyrics and the depiction of herself in West’s music video in 2016, and Kim Kardashian, the rapper’s wife at the time, attempted to defend her husband by claiming that he got approval from the “Lavender Haze” crooner before releasing it.
As alleged proof, Kardashian posted video footage from a phone call between West and Swift, in which the singer seemingly agreed to her inclusion in West’s song. However, Swift claimed she was not aware of the line referring to making “that bitch famous,” and, years later in 2020, the full phone call between Swift and West leaked online.
While speaking to Time as Person of the Year, Swift recalled the tumultuous time in her life, saying that it “took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before.”
“Make no mistake—my career was taken away from me,” she said, adding that she moved to a foreign country to live in a rental house and became afraid to take phone calls.
“You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar.”
