Taylor Swift Reveals the Huge Reason She Missed the 2020 AMAs After Winning Artist of the Year
For the sixth time ever and the third year in a row, Taylor Swift took home the title of Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards. This time, however, the star wasn’t around to pick up the prize at the show—and she had a really good reason for skipping.
In 2019, Taylor expressed anger over her former record label, Big Machine Label Group, selling her master recordings to Scooter Braun, who is the manager of Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, and a slew of other high-profile artists. Since, she has vowed to rerecord the albums she made with Big Machine…which is exactly what she was doing on Nov. 22, the night of the AMAs.
Standing in the recording studio against the backdrop of a zodiac tapestry (hmm, a potential Easter egg for Swifties to uncover?!) Taylor, who surprise dropped her latest album Folklore in July 2020 less than a year after her album Lover was released, expressed gratitude over winning the Artist of the Year award.
Thank you so much for this. This is a fan-voted award, which means so much to me. You guys have been beyond wonderful all the years of my career, but especially this one, when we’ve been so far apart, we haven’t been able to see each other in concert, but I still feel really connected to you through the music,” she shared. “Your reaction to Folklore and all the ways in which your imagination honored that album, I just love you so much and am really, really lucky because of you.”
She then added, “The reason I’m not there tonight is I’m actually re-recording of all my old music, in the studio where we originally recorded it so it’s been amazing, and I can’t wait for you to hear it. Have a great night. I love you so much.
It’s unclear when the “Shake It Off” singer will release her rerecorded albums, but she was legally able to begin the recording process just this month.
