Billboard meant to honor Taylor Swift as the second greatest pop star of the century.
That alone—ranking her merely second best—may have already constituted blasphemy for some of Swift’s fans. But in a since-edited video about the recognition, the music publication used a clip that prompted even greater backlash and an eventual apology to the artist herself.
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As part of Billboard’s countdown of the 25 greatest pop stars of the 21st century, it published on Tuesday its No. 2 selection, billionaire singer-songwriter and last year’s TIME Person of the Year Taylor Swift. Billboard posted on social media a video highlighting her career and legacy, but in it, it referenced Kanye West’s controversial 2016 song “Famous,” which featured a naked wax figure of Swift in its music video and the lyric, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that b-tch famous.” The song and music video, which observers at the time criticized as misogynistic, were originally released amid a yearslong feud between the two artists.
Swifties were incensed by the inclusion of West (who now goes by Ye and was ranked by Billboard as the seventh greatest pop star of the 21st century) as well as the offensive footage from his music video in a reel ostensibly designed to pay tribute to Swift. One fan account called it “beyond nasty” and “an outright slap in the face.” Another said it is “not only unprofessional, it’s extremely problematic.” The hashtags #BillboardIsOverParty and #BillboardApologizeToTaylor began trending.
Billboard subsequently took down the video and reposted it Wednesday with the controversial clip removed. Early Thursday, the publication also issued an apology, 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.”
Swift has not publicly commented on the Billboard list, video, or apology.
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