Billboard Apologizes to Taylor Swift for Including Controversial Clip in Tribute Video

Billboard has formally apologized to Taylor Swift and its audience for an unintended error in a video honoring the singer’s achievements.

On November 26, the music magazine recognized Swift, 34, as the second greatest pop star of the 21st century. To celebrate this accomplishment, Billboard released a highlight reel that featured archival footage and clips from Swift’s music videos, showcasing her career milestones.

However, fans quickly pointed out that the video included a brief clip from Kanye West's contentious 2016 music video for his song "Famous," which controversially portrayed a naked wax figure of Swift.

Reacting to the clip's inclusion, a number of Swift's fans expressed their outrage on social media, with one user declaring, "This is disgusting." Many others called for Billboard to issue a public apology. The hashtags #BillboardIsOverParty and #BillboardApologizeToTaylor started trending on Twitter.

In response to the backlash, Billboard has taken down the clip and uploaded a revised version of the video on Instagram. The publication released a statement, saying, "We are deeply sorry to Taylor Swift and all of our readers and viewers that in a video celebrating Swift’s achievements, we included a clip that falsely depicted her. We have removed the clip from our video and sincerely regret the harm we caused with this error."

The Independent has reached out to Swift’s representative for further insights.

Kanye West’s song was released during a long-standing feud with Swift and contained the provocative lyrics, "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that b**** famous." After the song debuted, Swift publicly condemned its "strong misogynistic message" and denied having given permission for the derogatory term used towards her.

Later, reality TV star Kim Kardashian, who was West’s wife at the time, shared a recording of a phone call that suggested Swift approved the lyrics. Kardashian portrayed Swift as deceptive, claiming she was a "snake" for saying she had not been informed about the use of the derogatory term.

However, a full, unedited version of that phone conversation was leaked in 2020, revealing that West never mentioned he would be calling Swift a "b****" in the song or that he had made her famous.

Swift later discussed the impact of this incident in a 2023 interview with Time magazine, stating, "Make no mistake — my career was taken away from me. Kim Kardashian edited it and then put it out to say to everyone that I was a liar. That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before. I moved to a foreign country. I didn’t leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls. I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard."

apology, video, tribute