Billboard names Beyoncé top pop star, Swifties react fiercely

On November 4th, the music portal Billboard announced Beyoncé as the "greatest pop star of the century." There is a large group of people who believe that this title should have been given to someone else. These are the Swifties—the most loyal fans of Taylor Swift—who are loudly and clearly expressing their dissatisfaction across all social media. Their favourite was ranked second on the list.

The reaction of the Swifties is not surprising to anyone; for them, Swift is number one in every aspect. Billboard was also aware of this, devoting much space to the idol of the Swifties even in the article announcing Queen Bey's victory. Billboard justified: "While Taylor Swift is the century's biggest pop star by the numbers — from album sales to streams to touring dominance — our editorial staff has chosen Beyoncé as our No. 1 Greatest Pop Star of the Century, based on her full 25 years of influence, evolution and impact."

Awarding the title to Beyoncé is not controversial for everyone. The artist first reached the top of the Billboard charts back in the year 2000, then still as a member of the trio Destiny's Child. She repeated this success 11 more times, most recently in February 2024 with the track "Texas Hold' Em." Beyoncé is not only gifted with extraordinary vocal talent; her work continues to evolve and surprise audiences, never falling short of the highest vocal and musical quality.

Billboard has been on the Swifties' blacklist since November 27th, 2024, when a video summarizing Taylor Swift's career related to her presence on the "greatest pop stars of the century" list appeared on the portal's Instagram. The video included a fragment from Kanye West's "Famous" music video, created during the singer's conflict with the rapper and featuring a wax figure of Swift.

Fans of Swift were outraged by the use of material. On November 28th, Billboard published a statement on social media regarding this issue. The portal wrote: "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. We have removed the clip from our video and sincerely regret the harm we caused with this error."

This explanation did not convince the Swifties. It is hard to disagree that this material should not have been reproduced by a music portal.