Stars turn on Taylor Swift in messy record company feud

Battlelines are drawn in Taylor Swift’s latest feud, with a number of stars — Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato and now Sia — coming out against Swift.

Taylor Swift. Picture: Valerie MACON / AFP

Taylor Swift’s highly public beef with Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta has brought other stars out of the woodwork.

Some of them defended the singer and others were in Braun’s corner — among them Aussie singer Sia, who called Braun a “good kind man”.

Sia’s public statement was met with an immediate backlash by Swift’s legions of fans, some of whom dug up an old photo of the singer in what they claimed was “blackface.”

As the photo circulated, Sia explained it was in fact an early version of her current identity-disguising ‘wig’ costume, in which she would perform on stage painted to match the backdrop:

For the swift fans trying to make out that I would ever do blackface please see this video. I was painting myself into the backdrop, it was a pre cursor to the wig... https://t.co/6St0hWl1k1

— sia (@Sia) July 2, 2019

Confused by this whole messy saga? Let’s break it down.

HOW IT STARTED

Swift, 29, yesterday posted a blistering blog slamming Borchetta for selling her old record company Big Machine, along with all six of her past albums’ worth of master recordings, to Braun. She accused Braun of “manipulative bullying” through his associations with former client Kanye West and West’s wife, Kim Kardashian.

Taylor Swift has lost control of her back catalogue — and she’s taken the fight public. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images For dcp

Swift accused Braun of being a party to Kardashian’s infamous recording of Swift and West’s “snippet” of a phone call in which she appeared to give her blessing to the lyrics to his song Famous.

Kardashian posted the video to Snapchat after Swift denied giving West permission to use her name in the song. She later claimed she objected to being called “that bitch” in the track, a detail that wasn’t mentioned in Kardashian’s clip. She was also livid at her nude likeness being used in West’s Famous music video, a move she likened to “revenge porn”.

Swift also alleged in her blog she wasn’t informed of the deal until she read about it in the news, a claim Borchetta vehemently denied, pointing out Swift’s father, Scott, was on the Big Machine board of directors.

Scooter Braun (left) has just bought Scott Borchetta's (right) Big Machine Records, including Taylor Swift's entire music catalogue. Picture: Rick Diamond/Getty Images

However, Swift’s rep told Variety: “Scott Swift is not on the board of directors and has never been. On June 25, there was a shareholder phone call that Scott Swift did not participate in due to a very strict NDA that bound all shareholders and prohibited any discussion at all without risk of severe penalty. Her dad did not join that call because he did not want to be required to withhold any information from his own daughter. Taylor found out from the news articles when she woke up before seeing any text from Scott Borchetta, and he did not call her in advance.”

WHO’S ON TEAM TAYLOR?

Taylor Swift’s latest feud concerns the six studio albums she’s released to date. Picture: Angela Weiss / AFP

Singer Halsey came to Swift’s defence, writing on Instagram, “Taylor Swift is a huge reason why I always insisted to write my own music. I believed if she did it (in a way that made my teeth ache like cold water and my heart swell and my eyes leak) than (sic) I should too. She deserves to own the painstaking labour of her heart. She has surpassed all expectations of what any artist is capable of. She catapulted her stardom into the Milky Way. And it turns my guts that no matter how much power or success a woman has in this life, you are still susceptible to someone coming along and making you feel powerless out of spite.”

Mandy Teefey, mum to one of Swift’s longtime BFFs Selena Gomez, posted a partial screenshot of the Better Than Revenge singer’s missive and wrote, “@Taylorswift I wish I could give you a big hug right now! Thank you for speaking out about this and teaching future young artist about protecting themselves. I don’t understand the pleasure of power plays to simply hurt people! To deny you the option to own your blood, sweat and tears, especially as a young women who shared growing up in front of the world, is heartbreaking!!”

Teefey also tagged Braun’s wife, Yael, who called Swift out for her remarks, and wrote, “@yael I would love to have a mom to mom meeting in private, drink some tea and have some real talk! XO.”

Rapper Iggy Azalea tweeted, “I think from what I can see; it’s more about the fact they didn’t even give her the opportunity to at least bid on her own masters; when she’s made it known she wanted to purchase. I can totally understand where she’s coming from.”

Telling someone about a deal days before it’s public means the deal was already done & she never had the opportunity to even make a bid to own her own work. These deals take months to negotiate in long form. https://t.co/Ra7NdxzcOM

— IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) June 30, 2019

Singer Alessia Cara wrote on Instagram, “Hey!!!! Stop stealing from women who work hard!!!”

Jack Antonoff, who’s produced several of Swift’s songs, tweeted, “herbs- don’t f—k with artists.”

The band Haim, who toured with Swift, reposted a screenshot of her blog with a message of support.

Model Martha Hunt, who appeared in Swift’s Bad Blood video, tweeted, “Taylor doesn’t deserve for someone who has constantly BULLIED her to OWN THE RIGHTS to her blood, sweat, + tears. It’s not the dark ages — artists shouldn’t be held down, and I couldn’t be prouder of my friend for standing up for what’s right. End of story.

“This is about protecting artists. Taylor courageously exposed a grown man who has time + time again proven his obsession with holding her down, like his reputation precedes him,” Hunt added. “He doesn’t deserve a morsel of control over the archives of her past … Sad day for music, esp considering Taylor’s generous contributions to the industry. :(.”

Fellow supermodel Sara Sampaio offered her thoughts:

Well such a sad sad situation, and she has every right to be pissed! Well I don’t stream music anyway, but If she records all her albums again ( or at least the red album :p) i would 100% stream it!

— Sara Sampaio (@SaraSampaio) July 1, 2019

Even The Hills star Spencer Pratt chimed in:

I hope Tay puts Lovers on hold now and drops fire REP 2 🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍

— Pratt Daddy (@spencerpratt) June 30, 2019

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One of Swift’s most frequent and ardent defenders, Todrick Hall, blasted Braun, who was once Hall’s own manager. Hall accused Braun of being “evil” and “homophobic”.

I truly hope justice is served and that my friend’s music will fall into the hands of a better human.

— Todrick Hall (@todrick) June 30, 2019

I would normally not say anything because I’m sure scooter will threaten me like he has before to keep me quiet, but guess what Scooter, nothing you can do to me would be worst than the 6 years of my life I can’t get back from when & I was ignored as your “artist”

— Todrick Hall (@todrick) July 1, 2019

He also slammed Braun for allegedly using Justin Bieber and Braun’s wife Yael as mouthpieces following the scandal.

WHO’S ON TEAM SCOOTER?

Braun now owns Swift’s entire back catalogue. Picture: Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for Fast Company

Demi Lovato, Justin Bieber and most recently Sia have each come to Braun’s defence.

Bieber was the first to speak out. He posted a throwback selfie with Swift and claimed Braun discouraged him from writing “Taylor Swift what up” on an Instagram caption when the Famous saga blew up. Swift previously denied giving West permission to rap about her in his song, citing the track’s misogynist message.

While Bieber was apologetic for their past interaction, he also accused Swift of trying to “get sympathy” with her blog post and using her platform to get her fans to bully Braun online.

Model and actress Cara Delevingne slammed Bieber in his comments section, writing, “I wish you spent less time sticking up for men and more time trying to understand women and respecting their valid reactions. As a married man, you should be lifting women up instead of tearing them down because you are threatened. Not sure you understand what an apology is. This issue that Taylor is talking about is far more than a picture and you know that. As you said, you haven’t talked to her in years, which means you definitely don’t understand the situation. I do. Take a step back and try and learn from this. We should all be on the same team. End of story.”

Braun’s wife, Yael, called Swift out for her alleged dishonesty, writing, “Don’t blame him because Kim caught you in a lie, it’s embarrassing, I know — but adults own up to their mistakes,” Yael wrote on Instagram. “We learn and grow from them, we don’t divert blame and blur the lines of reality to suit our needs.”

Aussie singing superstar Sia spoke up today, calling Braun a “good kind man” and wishing him well:

You're a good kind man @scooterbraun I hope this passes quickly.
I love you keep going.

— sia (@Sia) July 2, 2019

Lovato, who signed with Braun this spring, posted Instagram Stories about the Schoolboy Records founder, writing, “I have dealt with bad people in this industry and Scooter is not one of them. He’s a good man. 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.”

She added, “Y’all can come after me all you want but I’m always gonna stay loyal to my team. I value loyalty more than most people in this world and if my name is gonna be brought into conversations I’m gonna stand up for myself and the ones on my team.”

Lovato has previously called Swift out for various perceived offences, including allegedly capitalising on feminism though not necessarily embodying its ideals.

Braun has not commented publicly on her claims, however a now-deleted Instagram story posted by his friend David Grutman and reposted by the pop star manager had Swift fans fuming.

Following the announcement on Sunday that Braun had purchased Big Machine Records, including Swift’s entire music catalogue, Grutman posted a story on Instagram with the caption: WHEN YOUR FRIEND BUYS TAYLOR SWIFT.

Braun reposted the story, which was quickly noticed by Swift’s sharp-eyed supporters, before deleting the post.

This story originally appeared on Fox News and was reproduced with permission