Taylor Swift laughed at the idea of forgiving her longtime nemesis Kanye West during her show at Lumen Field in Seattle on Saturday, the final stop on her Eras Tour.
The Grammy winner decided to perform her 2017 song This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, a diss track aimed at 46-year-old West, for the first time in five years after experiencing several conflicts over the years, most notably over his interrupting her speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
While performing an acoustic version of the song, Swift started laughing as she said, alluding to West, “And you, because forgiveness is a beautiful thing.”
The 33-year-old singer continued to laugh as she confessed, “I can’t even say it with a straight face.”
The Shake It Off singer’s impromptu performance sparked a lot of feedback on social media from fans who are keeping an eye on the longstanding bad blood between the music giants.
The Latest: Taylor Swift, 33, laughed at the idea of forgiving her longtime nemesis Kanye West, 46, during her show at Lumen Field in Seattle on Saturday, the final stop on her Eras Tour
The groundbreaking for the feud was laid at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards on September 13, 2009 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
During the infamous slugfest, West interrupted Swift during her winning speech for Best Female Video for You Belong With Me, which was nominated against Beyoncé’s Single Ladies.
West came on stage, took the mic from Swift and said to her, “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ll let you finish.” But Beyonce had one of the best videos ever! One of the best videos ever.’
While the musical stars seemed to get better in the years that followed – they were pictured at several events over the years that followed – things took off dramatically after the release of West’s 2016 song Famous.
West claimed at the time that Swift gave him the blessing to refer to her as “B****” in the lyrics, in reference to the VMA incident.
Swift said she never entered into any such agreement, which led to a public feud with West after he and his former wife Kim Kardashian publicized a July 2016 call that West and Swift made about the content of the Famous song.
Kardashian alluded to Swift as a snake when posting the call, saying in a tweet, “Wait, it’s real National Snake Day?!?!? They have holidays for everyone, I mean everything these days!”
Swift spoke to Vogue in 2019 about how she dealt with the high-profile scandal and said she poured her energy into her material.
The groundbreaking for the feud was laid at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards on September 13, 2009 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City
During the infamous slugfest, West interrupted Swift during her winning speech for Best Female Video for You Belong With Me, which was nominated against Beyoncé’s Single Ladies
While the musical stars seemed to bond better over the years that followed – they’d been pictured at numerous events over the years that followed – West’s 2016 song “Famous” rocked things. The video featured a number of celebs including Swift, West and Kardashian
“Having mass public shaming, with millions of people saying you’ve been cancelled, is a very isolating experience,” she said of the difficult time. “When you say someone is canceled, it’s not a TV show.” It’s a human.
“They send mass messages to that person to either shut up or get out, or it could also be taken as ‘kill yourself’.”
She opened up about the post-scandal creative process that reportedly inspired the titles This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things and Look What You Made Me Do.
“I knew right away that I had to make music about it because I knew it was the only way I could survive it,” Swift told the magazine. “It was the only way I could maintain my sanity while sharing what it’s like to go through something so humbling.”
As Swift continues to build on her praise and reputation, West’s career has faltered in the six months since his December 1, 2022 appearance on Alex Jones’ show Infowars, in which he eulogized Nazis and Adolf Hitler.
“He didn’t kill six million Jews,” West said on the show, on which he appeared alongside white supremacist Nick Fuentes. “That’s just factually incorrect.’ I’m not trying to be shocking.’
He continued, “I like Hitler.” “The Holocaust isn’t what happened…Hitler has many redeeming qualities…Every human being has something valuable that they brought with them, especially Hitler.”
The appearance came before West was banned from Twitter later in the day for posting an image of a swastika with a Star of David on it
The tumultuous day capped a two-month streak in which West dominated the headlines after making a spate of anti-Semitic remarks, which caused a number of companies to cut ties with him.
The race-related controversy began on October 3, 2022, when he and conservative commentator Candace Owens wore tops that read “White Lives Matter” during a presentation of their Yeezy line at Paris Fashion Week.
West has faced restrictions on his social media pages after tweeting on Oct. 8, “I’m a little sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’ll be Death Con 3 on Jewish people…”
He continued, “The funny thing is I can’t actually be an anti-Semite because black people are actually Jews too…You guys have been playing with me and trying to pressure anyone who opposes your agenda.”
Appearing on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ show, West said he saw “good things” about Adolf Hitler and the Nazis
West made offensive comments on October 8 after facing restrictions on Instagram
West made headlines in October at a presentation of his Yeezy line at Paris Fashion Week, where he and conservative commentator Candace Owens wore tops with “White Lives Matter” written on the back
Professional fallout from West’s repeated statements about anti-Semitism included Adidas cutting ties with him on October 25 over his conduct.
Foot Locker and Gap pledged to take Yeezy off their shelves, while fashion giants like Vogue magazine and Balenciaga publicly distanced themselves from the rapper/fashion designer.
Talent agency CAA has dropped West from their roster, while a documentary about West made by studio MRC has been shelved.