When the most important names in tune struggle it out on the Grammys on Sunday night time, all eyes shall be on Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo.
The celebrities will move face to face within the 3 largest classes: Document, Album, and Track of the 12 months on the Crypto.com Enviornment in Los Angeles.
However some within the business — and quite a lot of enthusiasts on-line — are satisfied there's a contention that is going way past the Grammys. Everyone seems to be ready to look simply the place the 2 shall be seated.
“They’re both huge stars, so they’ll both be in the front row — but I can’t see them being too close together,” one well-placed tune insider instructed Web page Six.
By means of the regulations of showbiz, Rodrigo — who shall be appearing Sunday — must be a part of Swift’s squad. Swift is, in the end, prepared to advertise younger artists, and particularly girls.
All the way through the North American leg of her Eras excursion remaining 12 months, she introduced alongside Gracie Abrams, Phoebe Bridgers, Beabadoobee, and others as openers.
Noticeably absent was once Rodrigo.
“Olivia could have been on stage during the Eras tour — she could have been part of Taylor’s inner circle — but I don’t think she showed enough respect,” a one supply conversant in Swift’s tune dealings instructed Web page Six.
Each stars are signed to Common Track Team (UMG) however the pair have confronted rumors about their dating ever since Rodrigo, 20, was once compelled to present Swift, 34, a credit score on her track “Deja Vu” — and a small fortune in royalties.
Even supposing Rodrigo lately stated she has “no beef” with someone and Web page Six is instructed that Swift herself has no drawback with the younger superstar, we also are instructed that, in the back of the scenes, Swift’s felony camp intervened after the discharge of “Deja Vu.”
In the meantime, Rodrigo hasn't ever explicitly denied that her track “Vampire” is set Swift.
The tale is going again to the 2021 unlock of Rodrigo’s debut album, “Sour.”
On the time, Rodrigo — a former kid superstar who rose to repute at the Disney+ display “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” — was once, she stated, the “biggest Swiftie in the whole world.”
Her “entire life just, like, shifted in an instant,” Rodrigo instructed the New York Occasions, when she launched her debut unmarried, the teenager heartbreak ballad “Driver’s License,” which she co-wrote with manufacturer Dan Nigro, in January 2021.
Inside of per week it broke Spotify information and debuted at No. 1 at the Billboard Sizzling 100.
Rodrigo met her hero, Swift, on the BRIT Awards quickly after, with the pair posing for a photograph.
“I say that’s my baby and I’m proud,” Swift crowed about Rodrigo on social media and gave the more youthful artist a hoop very similar to one she wore whilst making her “Red” album.
But if “Sour” was once launched that Might, issues were given just a little sour.
The album at the beginning gave a songwriting credit score to Swift and her widespread collaborator, Jack Antonoff, for “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back,” which interpolates the Swift track “New Year’s Day” — necessarily, taking a note-for-note segment of the track and re-recording it.
Weeks later, Swift and Antonoff’s names had been quietly added to the credit for “Deja Vu,” some other track on Rodrigo’s album, for an interpolation of “Cruel Summer” through Swift. (“Cruel Summer” songwriter Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, was once additionally added to the “Deja Vu” credit score.)
However this wasn’t on the subject of credit score; it additionally supposed cash.
Billboard reported that Swift, Antonoff, and Clark would proportion a 50% stake within the track, whilst Rodrigo and manufacturer Nigro cut up the remaining.
This amounted to $325,678 in publishing royalties for Swift, $260,542 for Antonoff, and $65,135 for St. Vincent.
Web page Six has reached out to each Swift and Rodrigo’s camps for remark.
Rodrigo additionally needed to belatedly give songwriting credit to Paramore — whose singer, Hayley Williams, is a great buddy and excursion mate of Swift — on some other No. 1 hit, “Good 4 U,” which allegedly interpolated that band’s track “Misery Business.”
“It seems like people get funny about things when songs become really popular,” Nigro instructed Time.
Significantly, when anyone on Twitter identified that Rodrigo’s track “Brutal” was once “a pretty much direct lift from Elvis Costello” and his track “Pump It Up,” Costello was once fast to protect Rodrigo.
“This is fine by me … It’s how rock and roll works. You take the broken pieces of another thrill and make a brand-new toy. That’s what I did,” Costello tweeted.
He added the hashtags “#subterreneanhomesickblues” and “#toomuchmonkeybusiness” — references to Bob Dylan and Chuck Berry songs that “Pump It Up” inspiration from.
“I think it’s disappointing to see people take things out of context and discredit any young woman’s work,” Rodrigo instructed Teenager Style. “Every single artist is inspired by artists who have come before them. It’s sort of a fun, beautiful sharing process. Nothing in music is ever new. There’s four chords in every song. That’s the fun part — trying to make that your own.”
When Rodrigo’s sophomore album, “GUTS,” was once launched in September 2023, the web instantly lit up with theories.
Simply as enthusiasts have lengthy analyzed Swift’s lyrics for clues as to who and what they’re about, listeners had been satisfied “The Grudge” — with the lyrics “Took everything I loved and crushed it in between your fingers … And I hear your voice every time that I think I’m not enough” — is all about Swift:
In the meantime, legions of TikTokkers had been additionally humming that Rodrigo’s hit “Vampire” could also be about Swift, with lyrics like:
“I used to think I was smart
But you made me look so naive
The way you sold me for parts
You sunk your teeth into me”
Requested in an interview with The Parent if “Vampire” is set Swift, Rodrigo whispered, “How do I resolution this?
“I mean, I never want to say who any of my songs are about. I’ve never done that before in my career and probably won’t. I think it’s better to not pigeonhole a song to being about this one thing.”
“It would have been super easy for Olivia just to answer that question by saying ‘No,'” stated the tune supply. “She could have made it very clear.”
Rodrigo, who is set to embark on her sold-out excursion, instructed Rolling Stone in September, “I don’t have beef with anyone … I’m very chill. I keep to myself. I have my four friends and my mom, and that’s really the only people I talk to, ever. There’s nothing to say.”
Requested concerning the publishing drama, Rodrigo admitted, “I was a little caught off guard. At the time it was very confusing, and I was green and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Is that the phrase?”
Assets are transparent that, for Swift, no less than, there is not any unhealthy blood.
She was once observed clapping and cheering when Rodrigo carried out and gained on the VMAs in September.
Now Rodrigo and Swift will move face to face on Sunday.
Rodrigo has already gained 3 Grammys in her brief occupation, whilst Swift has a staggering 12 underneath her belt.
The tune supply predicted that the 2 may just in any case display the general public that there’s no unhealthy blood: “You may see Taylor being the bigger person and some moment of interaction between them.”