Fans were stunned that something so small would lead to such a vicious war between the pop superstars.
It was one of the longest-running feuds in pop music; Katy Perry against Taylor Swift. The two had a pretty nasty falling out after the Blank Space singer had accused her industry peer of stealing her backup dancers for her Prismatic World Tour.
Fans were stunned that something so small would lead to such a vicious war between the pop superstars, but one person benefited more from the feud than the other – one of them made a tremendous amount of money by profiting from the entire fiasco while the other tried to do the same but it didn’t work as well.
Though it’s no secret that Perry and Swift have since made up and are back on speaking terms with one another, there’s only one person that came out on top from the feud and that was the Love Story hitmaker. Here’s the lowdown.
When Did The Feud Begin?
It was in her interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 2014 where Swift acknowledged that she was no longer friends with Perry, accusing her of stealing her backup dancers and leaving her in a very unfortunate situation while gearing up her Red Tour at the time.
Interestingly enough, Swift claims she was never really sure whether she actually deemed Perry a friend of hers, telling the publication: “She did something so horrible. I was like, ‘Oh, we’re just straight-up enemies’. And it wasn’t even about a guy! It had to do with business.
“She basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour. She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me. And I’m surprisingly non-confrontational – you would not believe how much I hate conflict. So now I have to avoid her. It’s awkward, and I don’t like it.
In response, Perry issued a rather vague response on Twitter when she tweeted: “Watch out for the Regina George in sheep’s clothing…”
Fast forward to May 2015 when Swift dropped her single Bad Blood, lifted from her fifth studio album 1989. The song was considered as a “diss track” aimed at Perry for her wrongdoings, and the subtle shade with certain lyrics made it so much more vicious coming from Swift, who, as she says herself, hates drama and confrontation.
In the video, she had a bunch of celebrities making cameos, including Jessica Alba, Cara Delevingne, Karlie Kloss, and Zendaya, just to name a few. It certainly gave the impression as if everyone in the video were more or less letting people know that they were standing by Swift in the feud with Perry.
The track went on to sell well over 8 million copies, becoming one of Swift’s best-selling songs and only added to the success of its parent album, which shifted over 11 million copies worldwide. The 30-year-old went on to enjoy further success with her 1989 World Tour – grossing $260 million – and swooping up tons of awards in the process.
Meanwhile, it wasn’t until May 2017 when Perry decided to drop her own diss track, titled Swish Swish featuring Nicki Minaj. The song is very telling in itself, with lyrics such as “Don’t you come for me / No, not today (woah) / You’re calculated / I got your number / ‘Cause you’re a joker / And I’m a courtside killer queen.”
The single was supposed to help drive public interest for Perry’s fifth studio album Witness, which she released the following month, but unlike Swift, the entire project was a commercial flop, failing to not only gain any significant reviews but also becoming the singer’s worst-selling album of her career.
The lack of success with Witness put Perry in depression, having since admitted that she even felt suicidal over the album’s poorly-received feedback and how fans didn’t gravitate to the body of work, nor was there much buzz around Swish Swish – the diss track that was said to rival Swift’s Bad Blood.
Speaking about the situation with SiriusXM CBC, she explained: “My career was on this trajectory when it was going up, up and up and then I had the smallest shift, not that huge from an outside perspective. But for me it was seismic.
“It was so important for me to be broken so that I could find my wholeness in a whole different way and be more dimensional than just living my life like a thirsty pop star all the time,” she continued.
“Gratitude is probably the thing that saved my life, because if I did not find that I would have wallowed in my own sadness and probably just jumped.”
By June 2019, Perry made a cameo in Swift’s music video You Need To Calm Down, letting it be known that they had squashed their feud behind the scenes, with sources saying it was the Teenage Dream chart-topper who reached out in the hopes of making amends.
Still, it goes without saying that the public feud only benefited one person – and that was Taylor Swift.
Taylor Swift is in the spotlight with her new album The Tortured Poets Department. The new album of the singer born in 1989 quickly broke the charts, breaking many records.
However, many people believe that Taylor Swift is being intentionally sabotaged by some force. Specifically, music review sites constantly drag out Taylor Swift’s personal life to give the album low scores, and the album’s score is also continuously deducted unreasonably. The female singer’s record label made no move to promote the album, forcing Taylor Swift to promote it alone. Previously, Katy Perry was “beaten” for having to endure similar things. That’s why Swifties simultaneously trended the hashtag #RespectTaylor on social networks to protect their idol.
