NEWS
Brutal jab Taylor Swift made to Kanye West in her Grammys speech 10 years ago
The 2026 Grammy Awards mark 10 years since Taylor Swift took a brutal public swipe at Kanye West.
As she collected her gong for Album of the Year, an achievement that saw her be the first woman to win this award twice, Taylor decided to take aim at Kanye after he had slammed her publicly.
Taylor and Kanye first started feuding in 2009 after the Heartless rapper interrupted then-19-year-old Taylor’s acceptance speech at the MTV VMAs. On September 13, Kanye stormed the stage as Taylor accepted her award for Best Music Video for You Belong With Me. The 48-year-old musician believed Taylor shouldn’t have won, saying Beyoncé’s Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) should’ve won the Moonman instead.
During his interruption, Kanye took Taylor’s microphone and said, “Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’ma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!” with the moment going down in music history.
Seven years later, Kanye took another swipe at Taylor, leading her to famously call him out at the Grammys.
In 2016, Kanye released a song called “Famous,” which reignited his feud with the Cruel Summer singer as he rapped, “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that b—h famous.”
The song premiered on February 11, 2016, with Taylor’s Grammys speech coming four days later. In it, she slammed Kanye without naming him, as she said, “There are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame,” referencing the controversial line in Famous.
However, despite Taylor, 36, handling the situation with grace and dignity at the Grammy Awards, Kanye and his then-wife, Kim Kardashian, would bite back at her by releasing an edited phone conversation between the star and himself.
In June 2016, Kim claimed Taylor had approved of the lyrics about her, later sharing a phone conversation in which Taylor appeared to say the lyrics were “tongue-in-cheek” and a “compliment.” It also made Taylor appear like she said she would tell the media she was “in on it,” which therefore made her Grammy speech look like a betrayal.