2009–10: Initial controversy and apology 2009 MTV Video Music Awards taking the microphone from Swift at the
2009 MTV Video Music Awards, marking the beginning of the feud On September 13, 2009, Swift and West separately attended the
2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Swift subsequently won the
MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video for her song "
You Belong With Me", becoming the first
country singer to do so. At age 19, Swift was also one of the youngest artists to win an
MTV Video Music Award. While Swift was delivering her acceptance speech, West, who was in the audience, climbed the stage, interrupted her, and took the microphone. He then declared, "Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you, and I'mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time!"
Beyoncé's song "
Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" had also been nominated for the Best Female Video Award. Following West's declaration, Swift left the stage looking upset. After the ceremony, Swift was interviewed by reporters. She told them "I was standing on stage and I was really excited because I'd just won the award and then I was really excited because Kanye West was on stage... And then I wasn't excited anymore after that." The media and people on the Internet began referring to the incident as "Kanye-gate". Before the VMAs broadcast had finished, West posted an apology on his blog, saying he was wrong, that he would apologize to Swift, and that Beyoncé had the best video of the decade. shortly after winning the award for
Best Female Video The day after the VMAs, West made a pre-planned appearance on
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He apologized to Swift, stating "It's been extremely difficult. I'm just dealing with the fact that I hurt someone or took anything away [...] from a talented artist or from anyone, 'cause I only wanted to help people [...] I immediately knew in this situation that it was wrong [...] It's actually someone's emotions that I stepped on and it was very, it was just, it was rude, period. And [...] I'd like to be able to apologize to her in person." On September 15, 2009, Swift appeared on
The View, explaining that West had still not called her personally to apologize. During her interview, Swift stated "I'm not going to say I wasn't rattled by it. I had to perform live five minutes later, so I had to get myself back to the place where I could perform... All the other artists who showed me love in the hours following that, I just never imagined there were that many people out there looking out for me." That same year,
Kim Kardashian, who would later become involved in the feud, told reporters that her favorite song was Swift's "
Love Story". In what she titled the "Monologue Song (La La La)", Swift strummed her acoustic guitar and sang, "You might think I might say/ something bad about Kanye/ and how he ran up on the stage and ruined my VMA monologue/ but there's nothing more to say/ because everything's okay/ I’ve got security lining the stage." Following this line,
Bill Hader and
Jason Sudeikis appeared behind her, dressed as security guards and holding up a
facial composite drawing of West. Swift then started singing the chorus, which contained the lyrics, "It's all right/ Just wait and see/ Your string of lights is still bright to me/ Who you are is not where you've been/ You're still an innocent/ It's OK/ Life is a tough crowd/ 32 and still growing up now." Others criticized Swift as playing the victim of the
angry black man. Also in October 2010, West appeared on the
Ellen DeGeneres Show, claiming that after the 2009 VMAs controversy he had left the country to live overseas for a while. He told
DeGeneres, "I feel in some ways I'm a soldier of culture. And I realize no one wants that to be my job. I'll never go onstage again, I'll never sit at an awards show again, but will I feel conflicted about things that meant something to culture that constantly get denied for years and years and years? I'm sorry, I will. I cannot lie about it in order to sell records."
2011–early 2015: Favorable relationship In March 2012, Swift appeared on the cover of ''
Harper's Bazaar Australia'', wearing a shirt from West's clothing line. During this time, the two were on good terms and would occasionally go to dinner together. On February 8, 2015, at the
57th Annual Grammy Awards, West and Swift posed together for photographs on the red carpet. In an interview with
Ryan Seacrest, West revealed that after
Beck won the award for
Album of the Year over Beyoncé, Swift approached West and jokingly told him that he should have gone on stage. West also stated that he wanted to record music with Swift. In August 2015, Swift appeared on the September issue of
Vanity Fair. He also announced that he was
running for President in 2020. He stated that he did not "diss" her with his new track. Swift's publicist,
Tree Paine, released a statement on her
Twitter account, claiming that "Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single 'Famous' on her Twitter account. She declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message. Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric 'I made that bitch famous.'" On February 15, 2016, at the
58th Annual Grammy Awards, Swift won the
Album of the Year Award for her fifth studio album,
1989. In her acceptance speech, Swift discussed not letting others take credit for her fame, a reference to West. On February 17, 2016, an audio recording of West at
Saturday Night Live leaked in which he complained about Swift, calling her a "fake ass" and saying she should "let it go". "Famous" was officially released on February 14, 2016, as part of his studio album
The Life of Pablo. On June 16, 2016, West's then-wife,
Kim Kardashian, appeared on the cover of
GQ. She claimed that many people in the industry had been present during the phone conversation between West and Swift, including
Rick Rubin. Kardashian referenced Swift's 2016 Grammys acceptance speech, claiming that Swift was just trying to "play the victim again." On June 24, 2016, West released the music video for "Famous" at an exclusive event hosted by
Tidal at
The Forum in
Inglewood, California. The video was inspired by
Vincent Desiderio's painting
Sleep, and featured naked wax dolls of Swift and other celebrities in a large bed with West.
Lena Dunham, a friend of Swift, described the video as "disturbing".
Best Hip-Hop Video at the
2016 MTV Video Music Awards Japan,
Best Video at the
2016 MTV Europe Music Awards, and Best Video at the
2017 NME Awards. On July 14, 2016, a trailer for the upcoming season of
Keeping Up with the Kardashians was released. Immediately following the episode's release, Kardashian released trimmed video clips of Swift's phone call with West on
Snapchat. The clips appeared to support West's claim that Swift had approved the lyrics for "Famous", with the two speaking about the line "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex." She also released a statement on Instagram which included the line, "I would very much like to be excluded from this narrative, one that I have never asked to be a part of, since 2009." On August 28, 2016, at the
2016 MTV Video Music Awards, West said that he was not trying to "take down" Swift. The next day, he tweeted a photograph with half of Swift's
1989 cover and half of West's
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy cover. Years later, the full video recording of the phone call was released, supporting Swift's claims, but the backlash caused Swift to step away from the spotlight for a year and avoid being seen by the press. Swift deleted all of the prior content on her Instagram account and released a series of videos depicting a
CGI serpent, a reference to the snake emojis people had posted on Swift's social media following the release of the phone recordings. The next day, Swift released the single "
Look What You Made Me Do". The song included the lyrics "The world moves on/ Another day another drama, drama/ But not for me, not for me/ All I think about is karma." In another scene, Swift sits on a throne while a snake serves her tea. The song held the 2019
Guinness World Record for most-streamed track on Spotify in the first 24 hours, most streamed track in one week (female), and most streamed music video in the first 24 hours. "Look What You Made Me Do" won several accolades including, Best Western Song at the
Hito Music Awards, the Pop Award at the
BMI London Awards, and Award Winning Song and Publisher of the Year at the
BMI Awards. On November 10, 2017, Swift released the album, which included the track "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things". The song contained the lyrics "There I was giving you a second chance/ If only you weren't so shady/ But you stabbed me in the back while shaking my hand/ And therein lies the issue/ Friends don't try to trick you/ Get you on phone and mind-twist you."
Reputation's release date, November 10, 2017, was also the ten-year anniversary of the death of West's mom,
Donda West. Some of West's fans felt that the release date was intentional, while others dismissed it as coincidence. Consequently, some of West's fans started an unsuccessful campaign attempting to prevent the album from charting. The album and its singles were a huge hit.
Reputation remained atop the
Billboard 200 for four weeks, and "Look What You Made Me Do" spent three weeks as the top single on the
Billboard Hot 100. Swift's 2018
Reputation Stadium Tour included a plethora of snake imagery, including a 63-foot inflatable snake she named "Karyn". Swift later said that making music about the 2016 controversy was the only way she was able to get through it. Swift also said that the song was the end for her and West, stating: "When I heard the song, I was like, 'I'm done with this.' If you want to be on bad terms, let's be on bad terms, but just be real about it." She elaborated, saying "I really don't want to talk about it anymore because I get worked up, and I don't want to just talk about negative shit all day." On March 21, 2020, the full, unedited footage of the call leaked, proving Swift had not lied about giving West permission to call her a "bitch" in his song. In the video, West told Swift that he planned to release the song with the controversial lyric "To all my Southside niggas that know me best/ I feel like Taylor Swift might owe me sex." After the video leaked, "#KanyeWestisOverParty" became the top trending hashtag on Twitter.
2021–present: "Carnival", "Thank You Aimee", and "Lifestyle" , for
Vultures 1, West's first collaborative album with
Ty Dolla Sign On December 6, 2023, Swift was named
Time Person of the Year. In her interview, she reflected on her feud with West and Kardashian. She stated, "That took me down psychologically to a place I've never been before", discussing that she did not leave her rental house for a year and that she was afraid to get on phone calls. She also said that the incident had led her to push people away due to trust issues. West raps, "Why she say she sucked my dick? (Ha)/ Then she say she ain't sucked my dick (Ha)/ She gon' take it up the ass (Ha)/ like a ventriloquist (Ha)/ I mean since Taylor Swift (Ha)/ Since I had the Rollie on the wrist (Ha)/ I'm the new Jesus, bitch (Ha)/ I turn water to Chris' (Ha)".
Rich the Kid and
Playboi Carti were also featured on the song. The song was met with intense criticism from
Swift's fans due to its sexual nature and the fact that Swift was mentioned alongside several alleged
sex offenders, including
Bill Cosby and
Puff Daddy. Swift's fans organized an attempt online to prevent West from topping the
Billboard Hot 100 with "Carnival", encouraging streaming of Beyoncé's "
Texas Hold 'Em". West responded by claiming that he was on Swift's side during the masters controversy and that he was neither an enemy nor friend of Swift's fans. "Carnival" eventually charted atop the Hot 100 in March 2024. On April 19, 2024, Swift released her album
The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology, which featured the song "
Thank You Aimee", largely believed to be a diss track about Kim Kardashian. The song was stylized as "thanK you aIMee" on the album's tracklist, with the capitalization of the letters spelling out "KIM". The song contains the lyrics "And in your mind, you never beat my spirit black and blue/ I don't think you've changed much/ And so I changed your name, and any real defining clues/ And one day, your kid comes home singin'/ A song that only us two is gonna know is about you." The track was stylized, "thank You aimEe (Mean – Live from London)", with the capitalized letters spelling "YE," West's legal name since 2021. After the song's release,
People reported that Kardashian was over the feud and wanted Swift to move on. Some also believe the song "Cassandra" from
The Anthology is about Kardashian due to its references to snakes and lying. The lyrics of "Cassandra" state, "So, they killed Cassandra first 'cause she feared the worst/ And tried to tell the town/ So, they filled my cell with snakes, I regret to say/ Do you believe me now?" In April 2025, in a series of subsequently deleted tweets, West claimed that
Harry Styles and Justin Bieber "fucked Taylor swift from both sides" and stated "IM MAD I HAVENT FUCKED TAYLOR SWIFT... YET." == Commentary ==