Taylor Swift made history at this year’s Grammys when she became the first artist ever to win Album of the Year four times. However, instead of celebrating her incredible win, the media has become bizarrely fixated on the fact that Swift didn’t thank her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, in her acceptance speech.
Swift had a huge night at the Grammys, during which she announced her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, and was awarded Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album for Midnights. Unfortunately, the media has been desperately trying to rain on her parade, highlighting society’s tendency to minimize and overlook the accomplishments of women. For Swift, this has taken the form of scrutinizing everything she did in the mere moments she was on camera at the awards show. In addition to the Kelce detail, social media and news outlets have been hyper-fixated on the singer’s interaction with Celine Dion.
Even major outlets like Deadline and Business Insider have run headlines addressing Swift’s “snub” of Dion, who presented the Album of the Year Award. Tabloids ran even more sensationalized headlines, going as far as to call Swift’s actions “disgusting” and “horrible.” Social media users also claimed Swift “snatched” the award from Dion (she didn’t) and ignored her on stage. Many forget to mention that Swift made history and was rushing to get her speech out before the credits rolled. It’s quite outrageous that anyone would over-analyze her seconds-long interaction with Dion in such an overwhelming moment. What’s even more outrageous is those who genuinely think Swift was required to thank Kelce for her history-making moment.
The media manufactures controversy over Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech
Swift gave two acceptance speeches at the Grammys. In the first, she announced her upcoming album; in the second, she thanked her producer Jack Antonoff and collaborator Lana Del Rey. She also thanked several audio engineers before explaining what the moment meant to her. One would be hard-pressed to find anything unusual about either speech.
However, shortly after the win, The New York Post, which also ran an incendiary headline about Swift’s interaction with Dion, published an article titled, “Taylor Swift doesn’t thank Chiefs boyfriend Travis Kelce in Grammys 2024 win speeches.” The article insinuated that something was wrong with Swift excluding her boyfriend from her acceptance speech. Meanwhile, The Post wasn’t alone. PageSix, PerezHilton, Sporting News, and several other tabloids reported on Swift’s supposed “snub” of Kelce in her acceptance speech, with some accusing her of “forgetting” Kelce and shocking her fans with the omission. It was a detail that shouldn’t have warranted reporting at all, making it even more obvious that tabloids were trying to sensationalize and stir outrage over Swift not thanking Kelce.
So, Swift was supposed to thank Kelce … for what? He wasn’t the producer or sound engineer of Midnights. In fact, he and Swift hadn’t even started dating when the album was released. Yes, Kelce has been supportive of his girlfriend since they began dating, but he wasn’t a part of the musical reinvention, break from Big Machine Records, or meteoric rise to stardom that led to Midnights and its achievements. That was all Swift and her musical team. The “thanks” in acceptance speeches are usually offered towards those who assisted in the achievement, and given that Kelce has nothing to do with Swift’s unprecedented success, why would she thank him?
X users roasted the New York Post’s article, questioning what Swift was supposed to thank her boyfriend for, though this didn’t prevent other outlets from circulating the “news.”
The double standard in this situation was also hard to miss. Kelce didn’t thank Swift for his entry into the Super Bowl, yet there were no headlines sensationalizing this. Additionally, he wasn’t even at the Grammys due to his busy schedule, yet no one attacked him for “snubbing” Swift on her big night. In fact, there wasn’t any need for the Grammy coverage to mention Kelce whatsoever since he wasn’t there. However, the media still somehow found a way to make Swift’s historical achievement about Kelce, suggesting that she should thank a man for her success, even if he didn’t contribute to it.
Women often feel the need to downplay their success due to the fear that men will be threatened by it. It seems that quite a few people felt threatened by Swift making history, so much so that they apparently wanted a football player to claim some of the credit for Midnights’ Grammys. The truth is, Swift didn’t owe anything to anyone when she accepted her Album of the Year Award. She was under no obligation to hug and pose with Dion or to explicitly thank her boyfriend of a few months in her acceptance speech. She made history at that moment and wholly earned the right to let things be about her for just a few short minutes. It’s quite shameful that despite winning this colossal award, Swift couldn’t even be granted a few seconds without being policed and scrutinized by those who feel threatened and jealous of a successful woman.
(featured image: Neilson Barnard/Getty)
