Taylor Swift has been called “desperate” by people online after she released three new editions of her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD).
Swift and fellow singer-songwriter Billie Eilish are going head-to-head on the Billboard 200 album chart with their new releases. Eilish’s latest album Hit Me Hard and Soft—released May 17—will compete with TTPD—released April 19—to take the No. 1 spot.
While Eilish’s first two albums have easily topped the Billboard 200 chart, she now faces tough competition as TTPD could sit at No. 1 for a fifth straight week. Swift raised eyebrows among Eilish fans when the release of the new album editions coincided with the “Ocean Eyes” singer’s album release date.
Now people think that Swift’s decision to do this is a “desperate” attempt at beating Eilish on the charts. Newsweek emailed publicists for Swift and Eilish for comment Friday.
“Taylor Swift has released three new editions of ‘THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT’ — the Live From Paris Acoustic Collection. Each features one of three live performances: ‘loml,’ ‘My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys’ or ‘The Alchemy X Treacherous,'” the X account (formerly Twitter) belonging to Pop Crave, which shares entertainment news, posted on the social-media platform. At the time of writing, the post had been viewed more than 1.1 million times.
People took to the comments to share their disdain for Swift’s decision, with many saying that she was trying to steal the limelight.
One person wrote, “she’s so desperate it’s embarrassing,” with another adding: “Every week it’s something with this woman but there has to be a word bigger than greedy to describe her. She is going to be her own destruction.”
Someone else commented: “my fav girls girl! constantly trying to overshadow other women with her own success.”
A fourth person added: “the fact that her own fans don’t realize how embarrassing this is CRAZY. like wdym [what do you mean] you have to buy you three separate albums to get 3 songs?”
However, others stood up for Swift, with one person writing: “Taylor’s the smartest salesperson in music.”
“People love to dunk on her for doing stuff like this, but if Taylor Swift fans want to throw away money rebuying different editions of the same album, I’m not sure how that’s Taylor Swift’s fault?” posted another.
A different X user added: “As she should. I love when Taylor gets extra competitive and fights back. I love billies new album but her and her pathetic manager shading Taylor is so unprofessional. I hope Billie is ready for that #2 or less debut because baby girl you are NOT going number 1.”
This last comment refers to the fact that Swift fans—otherwise known as Swifties—believe that Eilish shaded their favorite pop star in an interview with Billboard. For the article, the 22-year-old shared her thoughts on artists who release multiple versions of the same album to boost sales, something Swift has been known to do.
“I can’t even express to you how wasteful it is. It is right in front of our faces and people are just getting away with it left and right, and I find it really frustrating as somebody who really goes out of my way to be sustainable and do the best that I can and try to involve everybody in my team in being sustainable—and then it’s some of the biggest artists in the world making f****** 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more,” she told Billboard in March.
“It’s so wasteful, and it’s irritating to me that we’re still at a point where you care that much about your numbers and you care that much about making money—and it’s all your favorite artists doing that s***.”
While people made assumptions about whom Eilish may have been referring to, she later said on her Instagram stories that she wasn’t speaking about anyone specific.
“Okay so it would be so awesome if people would stop putting words into my mouth and actually read what i said in that Billboard article,” Eilish wrote in April.
“I wasn’t singling anyone out, these are industry-wide systemic issues. & when it comes to variants, so many artists release them – including ME! which i clearly state in the article. The climate crisis is now and it’s about all of us being part of the problem and trying to do better sheesh.”
On Tuesday, Swift also released a new remix of her song “Fortnight” with Post Malone. The following day, Eilish published two new digital editions of her album, both of which were accessible only until midnight Thursday, which coincided with the end of Billboard tracking week.
