After Taylor Swift revealed that Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun are banning her from performing her old music, Selena Gomez stepped in with a powerful message to support her friend.
Selena Gomez has issued a response to the latest drama between Taylor Swift, Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun. After Taylor revealed that her former label head (Scott) and the man who purchased her masters from him (Scooter) were not allowing her to sing her old songs during televised performances, Selena took to Instagram to defend her BFF. “My heart is so heavy right now,” she wrote. “It makes me sick and extremely angry. I don’t mind if there may be retaliation. This is my opinion. It’s greed, manipulation and power. There is no heart or thought of anyone else’s. No respect for the words my friend has written since she was a 14 year old in her bedroom. You robbed and crushed one of our best songwriters of our time an opportunity to celebrate all of her music with fans and the world.”
Taylor’s latest beef with Scott and Scooter comes ahead of her upcoming American Music Awards performance, where she was set to perform a medley of the biggest hits of her career while being honored as the Artist of the Decade. However, Taylor claims that “Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun have now said that I’m not allowed to perform my old songs on television because they claim that would be re-recording my music before I’m allowed to next year.” Taylor gave up the rights to the masters of these old songs when she left Big Machine Records in 2018. This difficult decision came after Scott offered Taylor a deal that she simply could not accept: Record one NEW album on Big Machine for every OLD album that she wanted to earn the rights to. That would mean that Taylor would have had to record SIX new albums on Big Machine Records just to own the rights to her old music. In June, Scooter acquired Big Machine Records (and Taylor’s masters) for $300 million.
In her message, Selena added: “I have known Taylor for 13 years. She is the most dedicated, fearless, feisty, strongest woman I’ve ever known. People can say b****, but what I’m saying to you is that it’s called a woman with true identity and strength who takes no s***. I listened to Fearless before it came out and I just remember us jumping on a bed and she was just sparkling, so proud of her diary being read by the whole world. Nervous of people not liking it…but that became one of the biggest records — an album that saved so many young women who felt alone.” READ HER FULL MESSAGE BELOW:
In addition to allegedly blocking Taylor from singing her old songs at the AMAs, Scott and Scooter are also not letting Tay use footage of herself performing the songs for a new Netflix documentary about her life, according to Taylor’s statement. But it gets worse, as Taylor claims that Scott offered her another heartless deal that would let her use her old music….but at a price. “Scott Borchetta told my team that they’ll allow me to use my music only if I do these things: If I agree to not re-record copycat versions of my songs next year (which is something i’m both legally allowed to do and looking forward to) and also told my team that I need to stop talking about him and Scooter Braun.” (Taylor previously revealed her intentions to re-record her old music once her contact allows her to after Nov. 2020, so that she could own the masters to the new versions).
To conclude her message, Taylor begged fans to make their feelings about the situation known to Scooter and Scott. She also urged her loyal followers to nudge other artists who are managed by Scooter to speak up. “I’m hoping that maybe they can talk some sense into the men who are exercising tyrannical control over someone who just wants to play the music she wrote,” Taylor said. “I just want to be able to perform MY OWN music. That’s it. I tried to work this out privately through my team, but have not been able to resolve anything.”
In response to Taylor’s accusations, Big Machine records issued the following statement: “As Taylor Swift’s partner for over a decade, we were shocked to see her Tumblr statements yesterday based on false information. At no point did we say Taylor could not perform on the AMAs or block her Netflix special. In fact, we do not have the right to keep her from performing live anywhere. Since Taylor’s decision to leave Big Machine last fall, we have continued to honor all of her requests to license her catalog to third parties as she promotes her current record, in which we do not financially participate. The truth is, Taylor has admitted to contractually owing millions of dollars and multiple assets to our company, which is responsible for 120 hardworking employees who helped build her career. We have worked diligently to have a conversation about these matters with Taylor and her team to productively move forward. We started to see progress over the past two weeks and were optimistic as recently as yesterday that this might get resolved. However, despite our persistent efforts to find a private and mutually satisfactory solution, Taylor made a unilateral decision last night to enlist her fanbase in a calculated manner that greatly affects the safety of our employees and their families. Taylor, the narrative you have created does not exist. All we ask is to have a direct and honest conversation. When that happens, you will see that there is nothing but respect, kindness and support waiting for you on the other side. To date, not one of the invitations to speak with us and work through this has been accepted. Rumors fester in the absence of communication. Let’s not have that continue here. We share the collective goal of giving your fans the entertainment they both want and deserve.”
Sourse: hollywoodlife.com
