Taylor Swift releases scathing open letter

She calls out Justin Bieber, Kanye West, and Kim Kardashian

Stars Insider

01/07/19 | StarsInsider

CELEBRITY Open letter

On June 30, it was announced that Scooter Braun’s media holding company, Ithaca Holdings LLC., acquired Taylor Swift’s former label, Big Machine Label Group. While transactions like this happen quite often in the music industry, this one is stained with bad blood. 

The acquisition means that Braun, the famed music manager whose clients include Justin Bieber and Kanye West, now owns Swift’s first six albums. The pop singer allegedly learned about the news with the rest of the world, and came forward on Tumblr with an untold story about Braun: “All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years.”

She explained that she had “pleaded” for years to own her work, but was instead offered a deal by Big Machine Records wherein she would “earn” her albums one a time, in exchange for a new album. She didn’t sign because she knew the CEO, Scott Borchetta, would soon sell the label, and she didn’t want her future in anyone’s hands. 

“I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past. Music I wrote on my bedroom floor and videos I dreamed up and paid for from the money I earned playing in bars, then clubs, then arenas, then stadiums.”

She had made peace with giving away all her old masters, until she found out Braun bought them. “This is my worst case scenario.”

Swift referenced an old post of Bieber’s which made fun of the incident where “Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked” and said Braun had encouraged his client to bully her. She also called out his other client, Kanye West, for the “revenge porn music video which strips my body naked,” referring to the rapper’s video for the song ‘Famous.’

“Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.”

She called out both Borchetta and Braun for orchestrating this turn of events, “Controlling a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them. In perpetuity.” 

Artists like Halsey have come forward in support of Swift, while Bieber and Borchetta have written their own statements hitting back at Swift

Check out the gallery to see what they had to say, and how other stars have used open letters for some of the juiciest, most heartfelt, and most scandalous revelations.

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