Did Taylor Swift-ly Back Out of GRAMMYs Performance?
New reports are alleging that Taylor Swift has pulled out of what was to be a surprise performance at Sunday night's GRAMMY Awards. Even though she wasn't slated as a performer in the first place, hopeful fans had fun predicting what she would perform if she we're performing.
Too bad it was a waste of time.
Kidding!
Fan speculation that Swift would perform The Man - a feminist banger from her new album "Lover" - lends well to the major PR nightmare that the Recording Academy found themselves a part of earlier this month. The bottom line is that they pushed out CEO Deborah Dugan, who then filed a discrimination lawsuit against them due to their misogynistic remarks and boy's club mentality - more on this later.
Read more about the Recording Academy's woes
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According to Variety, Swift 's "possible appearance on the show had been kept a secret — albeit not an extremely well-kept secret — so her exit won’t create the problems that would have occurred if one of the many performers that had been announced were to have taken their leave."
Recent rehearsal schedules for Sunday's show contained a "TBA" spot which somehow led people to believe that this meant a Taylor Swift performance. The theory was only exacerbated when Tay Tay departed Sundance Film Festival immediately following the premiere of her new documentary on Thursday night, as it was thought she some had GRAMMY-related work to attend to.
Even without a performance, this year's GRAMMYs won't be sans-Swift. She's up for three awards - her latest album Lover is nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album, "You Need to Calm Down" is up for Best Pop Solo Performance, and "Lover" received a nod in the Song of the Year category. While any level of GRAMMY recognition is nothing to be taken lightly, it's hard not to remember the time she racked up eight noms for her Fearless album in 2010.
The lack of nominations for all things Lover has also created a rumor mill of its own.
The LA Times recently spoke to Deborah Dugan and specifically reports that many were frustrated "with a number of nods (and snubs) that seemed to reflect the unseen hand of the secret committee: Taylor Swift’s Lover being overlooked for album of the year, for example."
In her formal legal complaint, Billboard reports that Dugan claims that the Recording Academy "manipulates the nominations process to ensure that certain songs or albums are nominated when the producer of the Grammys [Ken Ehrlich] wants a particular song performed during the show."
This really is the perfect time for a performance of "The Man!"
The GRAMMYS will air live on CBS at 7 PM EST on Sunday, January 26th.
