Billboard magazine is “deeply sorry” to Taylor Swift after an attempt to celebrate her. The music magazine is naming the greatest pop stars of the 21st century and clocked the 34-year-old singer/songwriter at No. 2 on their list.
Billboard put together a video of some of Swift’s achievements and used a clip from Kanye West’s music video for the song “Famous.” The scene features a wax reproduction of a nude Swift and the line “I made that [expletive] famous.” That line was at the center of a major 2016 controversy between Swift, West and his ex-wife Kim Kardashian in which Swift disputed that she gave approval to West to use that line in regards to her.
Kardashian released a video of what she said was a conversation between Swift and West which proved the rapper’s claim. Later, a different recording made the rounds on social media which purported to be the full recorded phone conversation between Swift and Kanye West that appeared to confirm Swift’s version of what happened. Billboard faced swift backlash for including the “Famous” video clip and the publication issued an apology on social media.
“We are deeply sorry to Taylor Swift and all of our readers and viewers that in a video celebrating Swift’s achievements, we included a clip that falsely depicted her,” the statement reads. “We have removed the clip from our video and sincerely regret the harm we caused with this error.”.