On Sunday, Taylor Swift will be honoured as Artist of the Decade at the American Music Awards. She'll be the first woman to ever receive the honour, which has previously been given to artists like the Beatles and Stevie Wonder.
The award will be presented by Carole King, who called Swift "an extraordinary songwriter who has cultivated a unique and personal relationship with her audience."
Unfortunately, the event has been surrounded by some controversy after Swift published a lengthy Tumblr post last week alleging that she was being blocked from performing her old songs at the ceremony by Scott Borchetta, owner of her old record label Big Machine.
Don’t know what else to do
However, on Monday the label issued a statement confirming that they had ultimately agreed to grant Swift permission to perform her old songs during the AMAs.
Big Machine Label Group Statement
The whole situation has been full of back-and-forth statements and confusing accusations. So let's take a look at what actually happened to get us here...
It all started back in June, when Scooter Braun's company purchased Big Machine Records — and therefore all the master recordings of Taylor Swift's first six albums — for $300 million.
Swift also revealed that while she had never been offered the opportunity to purchase the rights to her masters outright, Borchetta said she could sign a new 10-year contract with the label and "earn back" the rights to each old album for every new one she turned in.
So how does all of this relate to Taylor's performance at the AMAs? Well, allow me to explain...
In August, Swift announced that she planned to rerecord her old music when she was legally able to in November 2020. This would allow her to own the new master recordings, and therefore the rights to the new versions of her old songs.
But in her most recent Tumblr post, she revealed that Big Machine and Scooter Braun were attempting to block her from performing any of her old songs on TV, claiming that would count as "rerecording" her old music before she is legally allowed to.
The day after Swift published her Tumblr post, Big Machine released a lengthy statement of their own, saying they were "shocked" by the "false information" in Swift's post.
However, very soon after Big Machine's statement was published, Swift's publicist jumped onto Twitter to clarify a few points.
Statement regarding Big Machine
First, she pointed out that Swift never said Big Machine were attempting to keep her from performing live, but rather that they refused to allow her to perform her old music on TV as part of the planned medley.
She also responded to the label's claims that Swift owes them money, saying: "An independent, professional auditor has determined that Big Machine owes Taylor $7.9 million of unpaid royalties over several years."
Then, three days later, another statement came from Big Machine's Twitter, saying they "have agreed to grant all licenses of their artists' performances to stream post show and for re-broadcast on mutually approved platforms."
Big Machine Label Group Statement
"It should be noted that recording artists do not need label approval for live performances on television or any other live media," the statement went on.
To make things more confusing, Dick Clark Productions — the company behind the AMAs — released a statement of their own saying they had no involvement in any agreement between Swift and Big Machine. But, based on Big Machine's statement, it looks as though the agreement has been reached.
Essentially, the original issue was with Swift's performance being recorded and re-broadcast after the live show ended which, as she said in her Tumblr post, the label argued would count as her rerecording her old music before she was legally allowed to.
So, it looks as though all is well and Swift ~does~ have permission to perform her planned medley of hits at this weekend's ceremony. Whether she will choose to, however, is another question entirely.
And — while we don't know what she's planning for sure — fans have, of course, been searching for clues. On Thursday night, Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong posted a photo of "Bad Blood" lyrics on Instagram, leading fans to speculate about some kind of collaboration.
📷 IG | Billie Joe Armstrong from @GreenDay shares lyrics to ‘Bad Blood’ during #AMAs rehearsals via his Instagram story
It's already been confirmed that the band will be performing at the ceremony to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their album, Dookie.