‘Bad Blood!’ Taylor Swift’s History Of Famous Feuds With Celebs Exposed
Oct. 16 2020, Updated 1:38 p.m. ET
Taylor Swift sure does know how to hold a grudge. Over her short career, her famous feuds have been legendary – and have often led to some of her biggest hits!
Usually, the source of her scorn is a jilted lover, or a former friend who did her wrong. But the “Shake It Off” singer currently finds herself at odds with many of her superstar besties over the recent beef with music manager Scooter Braun, who managed to buy all of her master recordings.
“For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work. Instead I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in,” she explained on Tumblr. “I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past.”
Swift shared that she learned of Braun’s acquisition along with the rest of the world and that it triggered thoughts of his “incessant, manipulative bullying” in past years.
But in a bit of a surprise, some of Hollywood’s biggest names, including some friends of Swift's, came to Braun’s defense.
“I have dealt with bad people in this industry and Scooter is not one of them. He’s a good man,” Demi Lovato wrote on her Instagram. “Personally, I’m grateful he came into my life when he did. Please stop ‘dragging’ people or bullying them. There’s enough hate in this world as it is.”
Former opening act Justin Bieber felt the need to speak out as well.
“Scooter has had your back since the days you graciously let me open up for you!” Bieber added. “As the years have passed we haven’t crossed paths and gotten to communicate our differences, hurts or frustrations. So for you to take it to social media and get people to hate on scooter isn’t fair. What were you trying to accomplish by posting that blog? seems to me like it was to get sympathy u also knew that in posting that your fans would go and bully scooter.”
Famous feuds in the spotlight are nothing new for Swift, who has made a career out of not only making enemies, but singing about them in chart-topping songs. Click through this RadarOnline.com gallery to see some of her biggest foes exposed.
Katy Perry
Perhaps Swift’s biggest beef was with now-bestie Katy Perry. As RadarOnline.com readers know, the feud started in 2014, when Swift accused Perry of stealing her dancers after Perry started dating Swift’s ex John Mayer. After years of back and forth backstabbing, the two finally buried the hatchet earlier this year, with Perry even appearing in Swift's latest music video.
Kanye West
Swift and Kanye West's feud began way back in 2009, when Yeezy famously interrupted Swift's VMA acceptance speech to declare that “Beyoncé had one of the best music videos of all time.” After years of back and forth, and several successful songs based on the incident, the two finally became friends at the 2015 Grammys. Just a year later, West released the song "Famous," and its accompanying music video, featuring a naked wax Swift right next to a naked wax Kanye in bed.
Miley Cyrus
In August, 2015, Miley Cyrus bluntly told The New York Times she has no interest in being a Swiftie. "I'm not trying to be in the squad,” she said. “None of my friends are famous and not because of any other reason than I just like real people who are living real lives, because I'm inspired by them."
Nicki Minaj
When a furious Nicki Minaj hate-tweeted after being left out of the MTV Video Music Awards nominations for Video of the Year in 2015, Swift took it personally for some reason, even though she is never even referenced in Minaj’s beef. After an online back-and-forth only expanded the confusion, the two spoke on the phone, and Swift issued ! The two would go on to perform together at the VMAs, singing Minaj’s "The Night Is Still Young" and Swift's "Bad Blood."
Rihanna
Much like Cyrus, Rihanna jumped ahead of the crowd and declared her independence from Taylor early. “I don't think our brands are the same; I don't think they match,” she told NME magazine in 2015. “I don't think our audiences are the same." However RiRi did offer one compliment: "In my mind, Swift's a role model, I'm completely not."
Calvin Harris
Swift and Calvin Harris had a tumultuous 15 month relationship that ended in June 2016. As RadarOnline.com reported, Swift and Harris first weathered a rough patch the previous October when the DJ was spotted at an L.A. Thai massage parlor known for “happy endings.” They reunited only to split for good in June.
Tina Fey & Amy Poehler
During the 2013 Golden Globes, hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler made a joke about Swift's constant dating, with Fey teasing that the scorned singer needs some me time to learn about herself." Swift wasn’t laughing. In an April 2013 issue of Vanity Fair, she snapped “There's a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."
Joe Jonas
The only thing to be possibly shorter than Swift and Joe Jonas’s summer 2008 fling was their breakup. As widely reported, and joked about, Joe dumped Taylor in a brief 27-second phone call Swift talks very widely about: "I looked at the call log—it was like 27 seconds. That's got to be a record," she has confessed.
John Mayer
Swift and John Mayer reportedly dated from December 2009 to February 2010. But although the relationship was brief, its legacy would live on in T’s song "Dear John," which bashed his “dark, twisted games.”
Mayer told Rolling Stone in 2012 he was caught off-guard. “It really humiliated me at a time when I'd already been dressed down,” he said. “I didn't deserve it. I'm pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do."
Harry Styles
Taylor and Harry’s relationship, which lasted from 2012-2016, was apparently such a disaster, she was able to write a whole album about their feud, 1989.