Snark Swiftmas Day Something! đ Taylor Grabs Grammys (Among Other Things)
Welcome to Snark Swiftmas! We fucked up the days! But that's okay! We're on the next day and the next fun topic.
Today we'll be talking about Taylor Swift's behavior at the 2024 Grammys.
This was not just a weird incident for snarkers. This event was actually a turning point when many fans and casual observers started to look at her a little more critically. "But why?" we asked, at several points during the night.
Here we go!
Album of the Year Award Speech
The full video courtesy of the Grammys themselves.
The context: Taylor had previously won Album of the Year three times: Fearless in 2010, 1989 in 2016, and Folklore in 2021. In 2024, she was nominated for Midnights in the AOTY category. Taylor has won a ton of Grammys besides AOTY.
Lana Del Rey was nominated for Album of the Year twice: once in 2020 for Norman Fucking Rockwell! and again in 2024 for Did You Know...? Despite being nominated 11 times, Lana has never won a Grammy.
In 2024, they were sitting at the same table, along with Jack Antonoff, who has produced for both of them (as well as like, a ton of other people). When Celine Dion announces Taylor as the winner, Lana claps her hands over her face. Taylor puts her hands over Lana's hands on her face (??) then stands up to bro out with Jack. You can see the disappointment on Lana's face, but she masks it and stands up to clap for her friend.
Taylor has zero awareness that Lana might not be in the greatest mood literally seconds after losing, which goes along with Taylor's general oafishness. Taylor literally drags Lana through the crowd, into a chair, and up onto the stage.
Did you know there's a chair in Lana's way
Once on the stage, Taylor immediately drops Lana's hand and runs to hug the other people on the stage. After a round of hugs, she reaches for the award in Celine's hands without even looking at her. It's not an exaggeration; she doesn't make any eye contact with Celine.
For those who don't know, Celine is not only a vocal powerhouse who has been singing since before Taylor was born, but she recently (at the time) announced that she was battling a chronic illness, stiff person syndrome. This condition causes muscle spasms so severe, they can break bones. Not only does it cause pain, spasms, and sensitivity, it also is taking away her ability to sing. Healthline quotes an NBC interview:
âItâs like somebody is strangling you. Itâs like somebody is pushing your larynx/pharynx,â she said in the interview...âUnfortunately, these spasms affect every aspect of my daily lifeâŚsometimes causing difficulties when I walk and not allowing me to use my vocal cords to sing the way Iâm used to,â she told Kotb.
Before that, she had been dealing with hearing issues from 2017 to 2018. These conditions are brutal for anyone, and the way it attacked both her singing and hearing are particularly heart-breaking. Celine's legend status, combined with public knowledge of her conditions, means that the vast majority of the industry is treating her with white gloves.
But not Taylor!
Taylor gives her speech, ignoring Celine completely, then specifically calls out "Lana Del Rey, who is hiding!" Lana is trying to smile and stay collected, but you can clearly see her smile drop at several points and she does not want to be on that stage.
This isn't a Lana snark sub and we're not going to get into her whole questionable gator wrassler deal. But in the microcosm of this specific situation, where she is dragged on stage to clap and smile for someone else who just won an award over her, she is giving a master class in class. And as for Celine, InStyle has her perspective. It's heart-breaking:
"It was very nerve-wracking, but at the same time, a big honor,â the "My Heart Will Go On" singer said of being asked to present at the Grammys in a recent Vogue France cover story. âThat magic. That excitement. To see the fans, to see the crowd. To see show business again.â...
IâIt took a lot, a lot out of me," Dion said.
This is essentially the moment that Taylor lived long enough to see herself become the Kanye.
The criticism came pouring in on social media. Lots of people were calling Taylor a mean girl for how she treated Lana, then many more were rightfully calling her out for the Celine snub. TheSpun has some quotes:
"Talk about being entitled! Didnât even acknowledge Celine. Itâs all about me, me & me," one fan wrote.
"Itâs the exaggeration reaction that doesnât make sense to me, like she knew she was gonna win but couldnât even give Celine (expletive) Dion an acknowledgment? Her PR was working overtime after," one fan added.
"yâall defending her but she did wrong. considering everything thatâs going on and who celine is, the least she coulda done was acknowledge her and not grab the award as if some rando from the street was giving it to her," one fan added.
Taylor tried to do damage control by taking a picture where she is...hanging all over Celine, a person who, once again, went public with her condition that causes body aches, muscle pain, and sensitivity to touch.
TTPD Announcement
Taylor won several awards that night. I don't know which order she won them in, and I don't feel like looking. I'm sure someone will politely let us know in the comments!
Midnights won Best Pop Vocal Album. Again (or maybe previously???) she bros out with Jack, smushes Lana's hair, and heads up onto the stage.
The speech is weird. She rubs the award and holds up two fingers to the audience without looking at them, then ends it by saying she's going to post the cover.
So I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I have been keeping from you for the last two years, which is that my brand-new album comes out April 19th. Itâs called âThe Tortured Poets Department.â Iâm going to go and post the cover right now backstage. Thank you, I love you! Thank you!
I'll let Slate do the talking here:
But that would have been fine if Swift hadnât then used the moment to announce that on April 19 she would be releasing a previously unhinted-at new album, The Tortured Poets Department. Whatâs wrong with that, you might ask? First, Swift could have done this in countless other venues, notably on one of her own tour dates, and drawn just as much attention. But as if fearing that she might not get any of the major prizes and therefore be something other than the nightâs center of attentionâagain, not possible; cameras were constantly on herâshe had to make a move she knew would dominate the nightâs headlines, at everyone elseâs expense. (I feel particularly bad for Kacey Musgraves, who had already hinted at her own upcoming new album on screen and in a TV ad, then announced it on Instagram. Nobody will be covering that today.)
Besides all that, Taylor just couldn't keep her hands off other people all night. Glamour wonders "Why Did Taylor Swift Keep Trying to Put Her Grammy on People's Heads?"
Here's the clip of Taylor making Jack's nomination moment all about her. And to be clear, joking around with your friends and supporting them is a wonderful and fun thing to do! But if they are nominated for a major award in their industry, the mature thing to do is let them have that moment to shine by themselves.
It's also not the first time she's done it! This one is a little less egregious because she's not giving him a full-on noogie on national television, but it's still ⨠The Taylor Show â¨. He's making zero eye contact with her in either shot, which is maybe an indication he's not quite as into it as the Swifties are.
Oh, and remember how she was messing up Jack's hair and crushing Lana's hair and bow every time she won an award? Here's Taylor in what looks like the pre-show red carpet going out of her way to use individual fingers to pet Lana's head and "fix" her hair.
Mid-Reverie below adds their comment on this strange behavior:
That was the first sign that something was "off". The patronizing way she was talking to Lana, fixing her hair in front of the cameras like she was her mother. It wasn't just cringe, but was a moment where the mask slipped showing the true narcissism and immaturity. Felt embarrassed for Lana to do this on a red carpet in front of cameras.
And finally, the video of boygenius in the press room, where Taylor demands to take a picture, puts her award on Lucy Dacus' head, then makes boygenius kiss her Grammy. Gonna let a livejournal fan community, ohnotheydidnt, do the explanation for this one:
- For context, boygenius = indie group with Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus. They opened for Taylor on the Eras tour. Phoebe and Taylor are friendly and collaborated together on Nothing New, but as far as I know, Julien/Lucy aren't necessarily close with Taylor and may have more of a professional relationship
- In the vid, they're preparing to take a pic together after the Grammys with their awards.
- When Julien turns around, it's clear she's not doing great emotionally and it looks like she's either on the verge of tears or already crying. You can see her bandmates intermittently comforting/checking in on her.
Taylor acts obliviously and kind of bizarrely throughout the vid.
- It seems like Julien doesn't want to take pics, and Taylor's trying to convince her to- "it's only for our friends, only for the walls in our houses"
- Asks boygenius twice if she can place her Grammy award on top of their heads (?!) because "it seems cool;" After the 2nd ask, Lucy says "you can do that, yes," but is clearly not actually into it
- Tells Jack it was "very weird he did" something unspecified, but repeats it a few times. What did he do?!
Boygenius had a very solid night overall with six nominations and three wins. Very well-deserved!
If you've got any more instances of Taylor acting weird at the Grammys, please let us know in the comments, with appropriately censored images and videos if possible! I heard that there was another noogie on Ed Sheeran, but couldn't find a decent pic of it.
Two honorable mentions from Effient_Luck in the comments:
Being so obnoxious in the crowd when Sza won that Sza said âhi Taylorâ in the middle of her acceptance speech. Taylor then laughed and said to those around her âI got a shout out!â
Strolling in late in the middle of Trevor Noahâs monologue so that the cameras panned to her walking to her table. Trevor started talking about Taylor instead of his monologue and she made sure to wave her fan and make the most of the moment.
Thank you for joining us for another beautiful day of Snark Swiftmas! đ