Taylor Swift‘s lucky number is 13. Thirteen years ago today — September 13, 2009 — Taylor won a major award, but what happened that night also changed the course of her life and career.
It was the MTV VMAs, and 19-year-old Taylor had just won Best Female Video for “You Belong With Me.” During her acceptance speech, a drunk Kanye West — upset that Beyoncé’s video for “Single Ladies” had failed to win — invaded the stage and grabbed the mic.
“Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!” Kanye proclaimed, before exiting the stage and being removed from the premises.
The next day, Kanye called Taylor to apologize; minutes later, Taylor told ABC News Radio she’d accepted his apology. By 2015, Taylor was presenting Kanye with the VMA Video Vanguard award at that year’s VMAs.
But in February 2016, Kanye released his song “Famous,” featuring the line “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why?/I made that b***h famous.” Kanye claimed Taylor gave him her blessing for that line, but Taylor’s rep denied it.
That July, Kanye’s now ex-wife, Kim Kardashian West, backed up Kanye’s claim. Spammed with “snake” emojis, Taylor wrote that she’d “like to be removed from this narrative” and disappeared from the spotlight for a year.
In 2017, Taylor returned, fully embracing the snake imagery. She used it during the tour for her Reputation album, which featured several songs referencing the Kanye incident and its effect on her.
In 2020, an uncut version of the infamous Kanye/Taylor video surfaced, proving that, just as Taylor had said, Kanye never told her about the “I made that b***h famous” line.
Sadly, the feud between Taylor, Kanye and Kim appears to be ongoing. Fans noted Taylor’s scheduled the release of her new album, Midnights, for Kim’s birthday.
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