Taylor Swift, a master musical storyteller, isn't letting the media craft the narrative comparing her The Eras Tour to Beyoncé's Renaissance World Tour. Swift clapped back strongly at the idea that the two superstars needed to be viewed in tandem during a telling interview with Time magazine, following her nomination to the short list for 2023's Person of the Year.
In speaking about the huge summer for Swift, Beyoncé and at the box office, Barbie, Swift called the season a “three-part summer of feminine extravaganza,” though cautioned that the women responsible for each prong of that success needed to be viewed independently from one another.
“There were so many stadium tours this summer, but the only ones that were compared were me and Beyoncé,” Swifted lamented. “Clearly it’s very lucrative for the media and stan culture to pit two women against each other, even when those two artists in question refuse to participate in that discussion.”
Swift didn't comment on the similar deals she and Beyoncé each struck with AMC theaters for the release of the big-screen versions of their concert tours, but chose instead to focus on their empowering friendship. “She’s the most precious gem of a person—warm and open and funny,” Swift said of Beyoncé.
“And she’s such a great disrupter of music-industry norms,” Swift continued. “She taught every artist how to flip the table and challenge archaic business practices.”
Swift and Beyoncé have been compared for their dominant hold on the pop music scene ever since Kanye West infamously interrupted Swift's acceptance speech for Best Video by a Female Artist at the 2009 Video Music Awards to express his opinion that Beyoncé should have won the award. Beyoncé's classy move to bring Swift back on stage later in the show during her own acceptance speech so she could give the 19-year-old Swift the spotlight back spoke volumes.
It cemented Taylor Swift and Beyoncé‘s bond for years to come, and clearly Swift remains eternally grateful. It should come as no surprise then that Swift rushed to her fellow pop superstar's defense as an independent and unique artist in her own right when the comparison was broached.
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