Taylor Swift Recalls 2009 Kanye West VMA Moment

In a new interview with Variety, Taylor Swift opened up about the infamous 2009 VMA moment with Kanye West and how it affected her afterward. As we all know, Ye hopped on the stage and interrupted her acceptace speech when she won best female video over Beyonce's “Single Ladies.”

Swift said about the moment, “As a teenager who had only been in country music, attending my very first pop awards show, somebody stood up and sent me the message: ‘You are not respected here. You shouldn’t be here on this stage.' That message was received, and it burrowed into my psyche more than anyone knew.”

She continued, “That can push you one of two ways. I could have just curled up and decided I’m never going to one of those events ever again, or it could make me work harder than anyone expects me to, and try things no one expected, and crave that respect — and hopefully one day get it.”

Kanye and Taylor's feud was reignited years later with Ye's song “Famous” and an edited recorded phone conversation. Taylor said, “But then when that person who sparked all of those feelings comes back into your life as he did in 2015, and I felt like I finally got that respect, but then soon realized that for him it was about him creating some revisionist history where he was right all along, and it was correct, right and decent for him to get up and do that to a teenage girl.”

She added, “I don’t think too hard about this stuff now.”