Billboard Apologizes to Taylor Swift

Billboard issued an apology to Taylor Swift for publishing an image of her that was from a Kanye West video depicting her in bed with him.

The music chart organization had posted a montage of Swift to celebrate her achievements as part of its Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century countdown.

“We are deeply sorry to Taylor Swift and all of our readers and viewers that in a video celebrating Swift’s achievements, we included a clip that falsely depicted her. We have removed the clip from our video and sincerely regret the harm we caused with this error,” Billboard wrote on social media.

We are deeply sorry to Taylor Swift and all of our readers and viewers that in a video celebrating Swift’s achievements, we included a clip that falsely depicted her. We have removed the clip from our video and sincerely regret the harm we caused with this error.

— billboard (@billboard) November 28, 2024

The video montage included clips from some of Swift’s music videos, photos of her in concert and posing on award show red carpets.

But fans became angry when they spotted the image of Swift from West’s music video for his 2016 song, “Famous.” In that music video, West was seen in bed with a wax figurine modeled on Swift and also a figurine of his then-wife, Kim Kardashian, among other celebrities.

Newsweek contacted Swift’s representatives by email for comment.

The song, and subsequent video, attracted controversy for depicting Swift naked and lyrics which said West would have sex with her. He also rapped in “Famous” that he made “that b**** famous.”

West claimed to have got the green light from Swift in a phone call, which she has denied. Kardashian told GQ at the time that Swift did approve the lyrics and later released a recording of the call between West and Swift, in which the rapper runs the “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex” line past her. But there is no evidence he asked her about the “I made that b**** famous” line.

The drama around “Famous” was just one chapter of the long-running feud between Swift and West which began at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, when the rapper stormed the stage after she had won Video of the Year. West snatched the microphone from her hand to say the award should have gone to Beyoncé instead.

The “Bad Blood” singer opened up on the impact the long-running feud with West has had on her.

“Make no mistake—my career was taken away from me,” she told Time magazine in 2023. “You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar. That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before.”

She continued: “I moved to a foreign country. I didn’t leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls. I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard.”

Billboard’s Pop Stars Chart

The rankings were released on Tuesday, and Swift’s second-place ranking riled up her fans.

While the first place has yet to be announced, Beyoncé is expected to take the top spot. Other artists in the top 10 included Rhianna in third place, Drake in fourth, Lady Gaga in fifth, Britney Spears in sixth, Kanye West in seventh, Justin Bieber in eighth, Ariana Grande in ninth, and Adele in 10th place.

But Swifties—the name of the singer’s fans—were not happy and wanted her to be number one.

Update 11/28/24, 4:00 a.m. ET. This article was updated to include additional information.