By Amira S. Z.
With the Eras Tour announced, fans from all over the world are going on the great war of getting Taylor Swift concert tickets!
Unfortunately for Southeast Asian Swifties, Taylor announced six concert dates only for Singapore after adding three additional dates due to the high demand from fan registration. Over a million fearless Swifties fought to get tickets to see Miss Americana herself at the Singapore National Stadium next March.
Taylor Swift, the iconic pop artist, and singer-songwriter, was born in 1989. Throughout her music career, she has only cancelled one show in her life. If that is not dedication, I don’t know what is! However, her dedication and passion for music also came with drama and controversy, which ruined her self-image as a woman.
In 2009, she won a VMA Video Music Award for Best Video by a Female Artist for her “You Belong With Me” music video when she was only 20 years old. As she was giving her speech about how grateful she was for winning the award, Kanye West, a famous rapper, interrupted her on stage. After drunkenly snatching the microphone from her, he told everyone that Beyonce, another famous singer, deserved the award more.
Kanye West was managed by Scooter Braun, a music executive, who was believed to be relentlessly bullying Taylor through his artists. He managed popular singers that you listen to on the radio every day, such as Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber. Apparently, he purchased the master recordings for all of Taylor’s first six albums back in 2019, as he bought her former record label, Big Machine Records. He paid 300 million dollars just to own her master recordings and proudly make money off of her music.
Guess what Miss Taylor did? She fights back!
Scooter’s team upped the price for Taylor’s master recordings, considering if she wanted to buy her albums back, and his team wanted her to agree not to say anything negative about him publicly ever again. Agreeing to these terms would just allow Scooter and his artists to keep on bullying her since he has power over her music.
Instead of giving in and paying more money to the man who treats her horribly, she comes up with her own brilliant plan up her sleeves. Technically speaking, she still owns the lyrics and music despite not owning the recordings of her albums. So, she started something called “Taylor’s Version,” the re-recorded version of her music. Knowing that her fans would stop streaming the albums owned by Scooter, his 300 million investment into her albums would just go down the drain.
Besides that, she adds new tracks, music videos, and merchandise alongside re-releasing the albums for her beloved fans. So far, she has already re-released three out of six albums that were not owned by her, “Fearless,” “Red,” and recently, “Speak Now.”
Swifties are more than excited to celebrate her re-released albums as the majority of them have grown up with her and are proud to have Taylor as an embodiment of women's empowerment. With “Taylor’s Version” titled in her re-recorded songs, she gets her voice back by telling her own stories and experiences as a strong and powerful woman.
Therefore, it is important to understand that it is never okay for men to take advantage of women. This does not only educate people to treat everyone with respect and not discriminate against any gender but also helps people stay accountable for their actions.
Owning up to your mistakes is not a sign of vulnerability, but it is a sense of maturity and awareness of yourself. And speaking up for yourself is not a sign of rebelliousness or disrespectfulness, but it is the realisation and acknowledgement of your self-worth and doing what is right for yourself. I thank Taylor for teaching me that.
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