Did Taylor Swift subtly shade Scooter Braun during her Eras Tour show in Cardiff?
On Tuesday, the 34-year-old singer took the stage at Principality Stadium in the capital of Wales and delivered her traditional three-hour show with two surprise songs that immediately had the Swifties making a connection to Braun, 43. As she approached the guitar set, fans were treated to yet another mashup — fresh off the “murder mashup” in Liverpool — this time combining “I Forgot That You Existed” and “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.”
While she started with the first song, which hails from 2019’s Lover — the first album which she owned the masters for — Swift seamlessly flowed into the second song from 2017’s Reputation, her notorious revenge album. Both songs contain motifs of “shady” people who she no longer has time for as she moves on with her life.
It’s not the biggest jump for fans to draw a line between the tunes and her relationship with Braun, which infamously soured after he purchased Swift’s former label, Big Machine, for a reported $300 million. Via the purchase, Braun received majority ownership of Swift’s master recordings and triggered a domino effect resulting in the re-recoding of all her earlier works, now known as “Taylor’s Version.”
Fans who have stuck with Swift since the beginning easily connected Braun’s June 18th birthday to the mashup of two of her most pointed diss tracks, calling the choice to blend the two songs anything but fortuitous.
Furthermore, one video posted to X (formerly Twitter) shows the singer on stage and strumming along to “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things,” unable to fake sincerity as she delivers the line, “And here’s to you ’cause forgiveness is a nice thing to do… Hahaha, I can’t even say it with a straight face.”
On social media, the singer’s fans reacted to the “hilarious” mashup by not so subtly calling out Braun — persona non grata among the Swifties — and sarcastically wishing the music executive — who announced his retirement from music management earlier this week — a happy birthday. Braun’s retirement came after a series of headlines about his A-List clientele parting ways with him, including Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato.
“i forgot that you existed x this is why we can’t have nice things on scooter braun’s birthday? #CardiffTSTheErasTour,” one fan wrote in a tweet.
“its scooter braun’s BIRTHDAY and she plays i forgot that you existed/this is why we can’t have nice things HAHAHA,” another Swiftie shared.
A third lover of the “Karma” singer quoted one tweet announcing the surprise songs, adding, “and on scooter braun’s birthday of all days we do not give her enough credit for being the comedian she is.”
The mashup comes a full five years after Swift first teased her interest in re-releasing her first six albums during an appearance CBS Sunday Morning in August 2019. Just days later, she followed that up on Good Morning America, where she confirmed she would be back in the studio to officially own her music.
“It’s something that I’m very excited about doing because my contract says that starting November 2020, so next year, I can record albums one through five all over again. I’m very excited about it. I just think that artists deserve to own their own work. I just feel very passionately about that,” she told host Robin Roberts.
At the time of the purchase, Swift claimed that her team attempted to enter into negotiations with Braun for her masters, but that Braun wanted her to sign an ironclad NDA stating that she would never say another word about him unless it was positive before they could even look at any financial records.
Back in 2021, Braun — who’s famously worked also worked with Idina Menzel and Justin Bieber — disputed claims made by Swift and her team, telling Variety that while he regrets how the whole situation went down, there were some factual errors in how the story was perceived, according to him.
“I regret and it makes me sad that Taylor had that reaction to the deal. … All of what happened has been very confusing and not based on anything factual,” Braun told the outlet at the time. “I don’t know what story she was told. I asked for her to sit down with me several times, but she refused. I offered to sell her the catalog back and went under NDA, but her team refused.”
He added, “Open communication is important and can lead to understanding. She and I only met briefly three or four times in the past, and all our interactions were really friendly and kind. I find her to be an incredibly talented artist and wish her nothing but the best.”
Ultimately, Braun sold off the catalog, netting a reported $160 million in the process, but the damage had already been done.
Since announcing that she would re-record her old music in 2019, Swift has released four of the six early albums, Fearless, Red, 1989 and Speak Now. Still left to come out are Reputation — which fans are continuously guessing she will drop during the Eras Tour — and her first-ever album, Taylor Swift.
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