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Beyoncé Fans Say Taylor Swift's Billboard Music Awards Performance Copied Homecoming

The aesthetic of Taylor Swift’s new era is crystal clear: She’s all about pastel colors, sparkles, and having F-U-N. Those elements were certainly front and center in her performance of “ME!”, which kicked off the Billboard Music Awards 2019 on May 1.

Earlier in the night, Swift walked the red carpet in a ruffled Raisa Vanesa number (again, very Taylor Swift New Era—down to the butterfly ring):

For the performance of “ME!”, though, she changed into a sequin one-shoulder dress and powder blue boots. But that wasn’t the only lewk on stage: Swift brought along a full marching band dressed in pink, dancers in colorful suits and briefcases (like in the song’s music video), and Panic! at the Disco’s Brendon Urie in a suit so gorgeous I could see Villanelle wearing it on Killing Eve. See for yourself, below:

Ethan Miller

Taylor Swift performs onstage during the 2019 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 1 2019 in Las... — Ethan Miller

Brendon Urie of Panic at the Disco and Taylor Swift perform onstage during the 2019 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand... — Ethan Miller

The whole thing felt very similar in tone to the music video, with one exception: Swift notably changed “spelling is fun!” to “Vegas is fun!” (The Billboard Music Awards took place in Las Vegas.) Like I said, New Taylor is all about having fun. Here’s a clip:

That said, not everyone was feeling Swift’s performance—or, more specifically, her use of that marching band. Beyoncé fans took to Twitter to complain that Swift had copied Bey’s 2018 Coachella set which was featured in the behind-the-scenes documentary Homecoming.

Others, however, felt the performances are two different things and shouldn’t be compared.

“It’s been so much fun and putting out this song and video has been really, really exciting and just a really joyful experience,” Swift recently told Zane Lowe on Beats 1 on Apple Music about this chapter of her career. “And it’s been like, you know the video’s like a magical-like, whimsical, mystical world. So it’s kind of been amazing to see the fans pick out little Easter eggs. And I just feel really grateful.”

She continued, “This new music is much more playful and actually inward facing. Like when you get into this album, it’s much more about me as a person, no pun intended with the song title.”

This post has been updated to include the Twitter debate around Swift’s performance.

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Taylor Swift's Video Director Says Beyoncé Copied 'Bad Blood,' but Where Are the Receipts?

I love Joseph Kahn‘s music videos. If you’re unfamiliar with his work, he’s helmed some of the most important pop clips in history—Britney Spears’ “Toxic,” Lady Gaga’s “LoveGame,” and all the best videos from Taylor Swift’s 1989 album. He also directed Swift’s most recent video, “Look What You Made Me Do.” The man is talented—insanely talented. The “Womanizer” video is literally why I’m gay.

But goddamnit, Kahn’s talking is getting in the way of my love for his videos. First, he tweeted about how cultural appropriation is “hot” and actually not bad at all. Then, he came for the BeyHive, which is just a fundamental mistake in 2017. And now he’s pitting Swift and Beyoncé against each other for no reason at all.

Let’s back up: When Swift teased her “Look What You Made Me Do” video before the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, people started saying she ripped off Beyoncé’s Formation era. Of course, the comparisons went away after Swift dropped the full video. Truthfully, they’re not really that similar—which Kahn said in a (very rational) tweet right before the video was released.

His latest comments about the situation, however, are not rational. Instead of putting the Bey vs. Taylor fire out for good, Kahn chose to say this in his recent interview with the Los Angeles Times:

“[‘Look What You Made Me Do’ is] not ‘Formation’ at all. They try to say she’s wearing a black
crop top and Beyoncé wore a black crop top. But they don’t realize in
2015 in ‘Bad Blood,’ Taylor Swift was wearing a black crop top. I
really do think, by the way, that Beyoncé copied ‘Bad Blood.’”

Um, what? Beyoncé copied the “Bad Blood” video? How? When? Hold up, let me conduct a thorough receipt investigation:

Still looking. Stand by.

Almost done.

There are none. At no point in Beyoncé’s Lemonade did she throw on a red wig and recruit a group of Victoria’s Secret models to wage an intergalactic war against Selena Gomez’s bob. She didn’t wear latex or knee-high boots and stomp around while Lena Dunham smoked a cigar. She didn’t have a kiki with three Hailee Steinfelds. Where is Kahn getting his info? Taylor Swift Fan Theory Tumblr?

Honestly, this is all just so dumb. Swift and Kahn silenced the Beyoncé copycat haters when they released the “Look What You Made Me Do” clip in full. The video is 100 percent original—and good! I watch it 20 times a day, minimum. The work speaks for itself.

However, these quotes will spark another war between the fandoms—and we’re creating more drama between two female artists where there really isn’t any. The criticisms of Swift’s new video were valid when we only had a five-second preview of it, but they’re not anymore. And neither is the notion that Beyoncé’s main inspiration for Lemonade was a nunchucks-wielding Cara Delevingne. Let’s not make any more bad blood.

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