The Grammys award ceremony is a wildly famous event with many wildly famous music artists in attendance. Acclaimed musicians of all genres gather to celebrate music and recognize talented musicians with awards. Outside of the venue, millions of people watch from their homes, with an outstanding 16.9 million viewers at the most recent 2024 Grammys. All this is to say that the Grammys are considered by many to be a huge deal. Often, artists will use the mass publicity that the Grammys offer to advertise their upcoming music or boost their popularity, such as music artist SZA promoting her new song, “Saturn,” in a MasterCard commercial. This year, upon winning her 13th award—“Best Pop Vocal Album” for Midnights—Taylor Swift made an announcement that would later lead to backlash: the release of her brand new album, The Tortured Poets Department, on April 19.
The Tortured Poets Department consists of eighteen tracks, including one bonus track, and was relatively well-received by fans. However, some Grammy viewers believe that Swift’s announcement of the album was selfish, as it took the spotlight away from other Grammy winners. Some people are going so far as to assume that the other musicians in the audience were upset with her for doing this. There is no evidence to suggest that this is true. Swift has millions of devoted, sometimes overly intense, fans. She also has infamous haters, who will attack her for every small step. Swift’s announcement caused a war to break out between the two sides, mainly on popular social media platforms such as TikTok. Fans and haters argued in comment sections over whether or not it was appropriate for Swift to announce her album at the Grammys. This quickly evolved into users making fun of Swift’s actions during the night, which included getting up and dancing to songs, being excited with her long-time friend, musician Jack Anatoff, and even the way she received the news of who won “Album of the Year” at the end of the night. The arguments went from being reasonable to being mean and spiteful and followed in the line of the awful pattern of hatred Swift receives.
What Swift did at the Grammys was not inherently selfish. Yes, it may have taken some attention away from other Grammy winners, but there was nothing wrong with her actions. Swift is a woman who has worked hard over the years to get to where she currently is, and just because she is extremely successful does not mean that she is deserving of hate, especially for announcing something as exciting and significant as the release of a new album. Perhaps the most hypocritical part of this thread of hate is that Swift was not the only artist to announce an album that night. Country singer Kacey Musgraves also announced her new album, and aside from being overshadowed, received little to no backlash. The Grammy award ceremony, with its popularity and enormous number of viewers, is a perfect place to announce big news, and Swift was not in the wrong to take advantage of that opportunity. After all, most of the event itself is just an advertisement anyway.
Aside from being outstandingly successful and having a very lucrative career, Swift does what she does because she loves music. Despite popular belief, there is no evidence suggesting she was out to get musicians in the audience or wanted the attention to be completely on her. Maybe she did announce her album that night to be selfish, or maybe she wanted to announce the album when she did because she was happy she won an award. Maybe she was singing and dancing along to performances because she was having a good time. Most importantly, maybe there is not an ulterior motive for every action she takes.
The backlash from her announcement at the Grammys was a singular moment in a long chain of rather unnecessary backlash for Swift. Throughout her entire career, Swift has been dealing with people calling her out on every small detail, saying she is overrated and oftentimes undermining her abilities. As harsh as the comments made to her about the Grammys were, they were not surprising to see, which is part of the problem itself. Being attacked by thousands of people for announcing an album as a musician is unnecessary, but the same attacks happen to Swift when she attends football games to watch her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, or when she performs a show from her massively successful Eras Tour. Whatever she may do, Swift cannot stay away from the hatred she receives. And, for the most part, this hatred is unjustified and mean.
Swift’s backlash from the Grammys is a bigger problem than just one night and displays not only how difficult it is to be in the spotlight constantly but also how hard it is to be a successful woman in today’s society, even now. She is not a perfect person, but even if the award announcement was timed slightly inappropriately, the online reactions to her announcement were wildly dramatic and rude. If the only thing that makes Swift “selfish” is announcing The Tortured Poets Department at the Grammys, then perhaps the people making these comments about her need to question their moral standings as well.
