celebrity

In one night, the tide shifted against Taylor Swift.

Taylor Swift should be on top of the world right now.

At the 2024 Grammy Awards, she made history winning her fourth Album Of The Year award, becoming the first artist to reach the milestone. She also took home the Best Pop Vocal Album award and during her winner's speech, she announced her new album The Tortured Poets Department will be released on April 19.

In between Grammy wins, she's embarking on the Australian leg of her Eras tour in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, her boyfriend Travis Kelce's NFL team Kansas City Chiefs is heading to next week's Super Bowl. 

So yep, Taylor is everywhere and she has been for the past year, with the singer even named Time's Person of the Year in 2023.

But has her time up on that pedestal officially come to an end? The signs are looking that way if the response to her antics at the 2024 Grammys is anything to go by.

Swift is generally a popular personality at awards shows. It was her unenthused response to Jo Koy's Golden Globes monologue that set the tone for the speech being poorly received earlier this year and she provided nonstop meme material at the 2023 MTV VMAs. 

However, there was more than one Swift moment at the Grammys that had people cringing. 

The most glaring one was Swift's response to receiving the AOTY award from music icon, Celine Dion. 

This was the 'My Heart Will Go On' singer's first public appearance since sharing she has been diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome and fans were left stunned when Swift failed to thank or even acknowledge Dion on stage. 

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Instead, she focused on hugging her collaborators as Dion stood there awkwardly. 

The moment was quickly called out on social media site X (formerly Twitter) with users furious that Swift ignored a literal living legend. 

"Taylor Swift didn't even hug or acknowledge Celine Dion," fumed one person on  X.

"Taylor Swift completely ignoring Celine Dion like she was some trophy model presenter," another posted. "She's won this three times and is usually such a pro. But to ignore an icon, who is dealing with so much? Yikes."

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Taylor's faux pas was further highlighted by X users sharing unflattering comparisons. For instance, Celine gave Adele the same award in 2017 and the 'Someone Like You' singer bowed down before giving her a long embrace. 

And on that same night, Miley Cyrus warmly greeted another legend, Mariah Carey, when she was awarded the gong for Best Pop Solo Performance. 

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As the pile-on grew, Swift's passionate community of fans came to her defence by highlighting Taylor's enthused reaction when Celine first came on stage.

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If you're fretting right now that a feud between Dion and Swift (the horror!) is imminent, don't worry. The two stars were photographed together in a hug at the ceremony. 

Celine Dion and Taylor Swift. Image: Getty. 

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But this wasn't the only Grammys moment that raised eyebrows. 

Swift seemingly dragging Lana Del Rey onto the stage for her Album Of The Year win for Midnights felt thoughtless and self-indulgent given that Lana had just lost in the same category for her own album, Did You Know There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.

"The way she dragged Lana up on stage made me wanna pass out that’s so embarrassing," writer Bolu Babalola posted on X.

Sure, Lana was a featured artist on Midnights track 'Snow On The Beach' and is a friend of Swift, but given how much Lana appeared to be protesting being brought on stage and the way she stood there sheepishly, Swift probably should have just left the singer behind. 

Swift did give the singer a special acknowledgment as she accepted the award. "Lana Del Rey, who is hiding, but I think so many female artists would not be where they are and would not have the inspiration they have if it weren’t for the work that she’s done," she said. 

"I think she’s a legacy artist, a legend in her prime right now. I’m so lucky to know you and to be your friend."

Listen to The Spill's hosts dissect Taylor Swift's fashion choices. Post continues after podcast.

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Swift deciding to announce her new album as she accepted her first award was considered distasteful by some for a Grammys acceptance speech. Swift has previously announced albums on award shows like the 2022 MTV VMAs, yet the Grammys has a different energy as a more prestigious space for celebrating artists rather than hosting publicity stunts. 

"Swift could have done this in countless other venues, notably on one of her own tour dates, and drawn just as much attention," writer Carl Wilson wrote for Slate. 

"She had to make a move she knew would dominate the night’s headlines, at everyone else’s expense."

The culture site pointed to the fact that on the same day country singer Kacey Musgraves announced a new album on Instagram but it failed to make waves off the back of the Swift tsunami.

There was another moment in her AOTY speech that some have considered ungrateful. 

"I would love to tell you that this is the best moment of my life, but I feel this happy when I finish a song," the singer said, seemingly shrugging off the momentous moment. 

Reminder: this was her fourth AOTY Grammy award, making her the first artist EVER to reach this feat.

This throwaway comment came across as especially tone-deaf given that earlier in the evening, Jay-Z had called attention to the fact his wife Beyonce had never won the most prestigious AOTY honour, despite winning 32 Grammys across her pivotal career.

Jay-Z accepts award with Blue Ivy Carter. Image: Getty. 

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Beyonce's Renaissance controversially lost to Harry Styles' Harry's House in 2023. 

"The most Grammys, never won Album Of The Year. That doesn't work," Jay-Z said at Monday's awards.

While the backlash against Swift will likely settle down as the singer gets back on tour, it does give me flashbacks to the cultural mood around the time she faced her biggest fall from grace yet in 2016: when Kim Kardashian claimed she had deceived people into believing she didn't approve Kanye West's 'Famous' lyrics about her by sharing an edited video of their phone call.

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And the wheels started spinning at the 2016 Grammys, with Swift spending part of her AOTY acceptance speech for her album 1989 taking a swipe at West's lyrics saying he had 'made' Swift famous. 

"To all the young women out there, there are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success, and try to take credit for your accomplishments and your fame," she said in her speech.

"It was you and the people who love you who put you [where you are]."

Plenty of people sided with Swift, but there was a vocal fringe of people who accused the singer of playing the victim at the expense of Black artists.

The conversations around Swift also noted that she had won the 2016 Grammy over Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly, an album with an immense cultural impact. 

Like 2016, this year Swift won over a woman of colour who many say deserved the honour more: SZA’s album SOS

"Black artists, specifically women, can put NUMBERS on the scoreboard, generate entire cultural movements, outperform, and out-talent," one user posted on X about Swift's win.

"Giving Album Of The Year to Midnights over SOS is almost as bad as when Harry’s House won over Renaissance...like what do black women in music have to do at this point."

Whether Swift deserved the honour or not is something only the Recording Academy can answer for, but the energy directed at Swift has notably shifted. 

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20 years since she signed her first record deal, Swift has gotten too big for her bejeweled cowboy boots. 

Or at least, that's the growing consensus online. 

But with new music on the way, a record-breaking global tour, and a couple of new shiny statues to add to her mantlepiece, it's doubtful that Taylor Swift will care. She's been through a lot worse. 

Feature image: Getty.

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