Taylor Swift shades Scooter Braun on his birthday with vengeful surprise songs

Cardiff, UK - Taylor Swift added some shade into her surprise set in Cardiff, Wales, as she hit the stage on what just so happened to be the birthday of her notorious enemy, Scooter Braun.

Taylor Swift (r.) added some shade into her surprise set in Cardiff as she hit the stage on the birthday of her notorious enemy, Scooter Braun.
Taylor Swift (r.) added some shade into her surprise set in Cardiff as she hit the stage on the birthday of her notorious enemy, Scooter Braun.  © Collage: IMAGO / Avalon.red & ABACAPRESS

The 34-year-old pop star combined two of her best diss tracks during Tuesday's stop on The Eras Tour as she played a mashup of This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things and I Forgot That You Existed on the guitar.

Swifties immediately noted the timing of the selections, as the performance fell not only on Scooter's birthday but also one day after he announced he was retiring from music management.

Taylor and Scooter's bad blood dates back to 2019 when the 43-year-old music executive purchased Big Machine Label Group, which owns the masters of the singer's first six albums.

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Scooter then quickly sold the masters to a private equity firm, earning a profit of over $200 million and leaving Taylor without the rights to her own music.

The Grammy winner expressed her disappointment shortly after, accusing Scooter of "exercising tyrannical control" over her and affirming that she was never given the chance to purchase the rights to her music before they were sold.

As any good Swiftie historian knows all too well, the controversial business deal ultimately led Taylor to begin her re-recording project.

Why do Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun have bad blood?

In 2021, the Karma artist released Fearless (Taylor's Version), the first of her re-recordings. Each Taylor's Version album features new recordings of the original tracklist as well as several previously scrapped "From the Vault" tracks.

Fans have backed Taylor in the move, ditching the original recordings to support the ones she now owns – thus devaluing the old masters that Scooter continues to profit from.

Scooter's decision to step down from music management comes almost a year after several of his high-profile clients, including Demi Lovato and Ariana Grande, parted ways with him.

Cover photo: Collage: IMAGO / Avalon.red & ABACAPRESS

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