After winning Favorite Pop/Rock Album and ahead of receiving this year’s American Music Artist of the Decade Award from Carole King, Taylor Swift took to the AMAs stage Sunday to remind you that she’s Taylor Swift. While the set might not have been specifically referencing her ongoing feud with Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta, it’s hard not to read into Taylor’s choice to start her set with “The Man†from Lover in a button-down adorned with the titles of all the albums Braun now owns. She also sang “I Knew You Were Trouble,†“Blank Space,†“Lover†(with a performance from Misty Copeland), and “Shake It Off†with Camila Cabello and Halsey, among others, but still. “I’m so sick of them coming at me again/’Cause if I was a man, then I’d be the man!†Come on now.
Taylor went even more public with the feud last week, alleging that, in response to her decision to rerecord her songs following the sale of her entire pre-Lover discography, Borchetta and Braun were attempting to prevent her from performing her earlier hits at the American Music Awards, or using earlier songs in an upcoming Netflix documentary about Swift. The pair denied the accusation, and clearly in the end, Taylor was able to dip back into her oeuvre. Still, the evening saw a Lover-heavy medley that ended with the album’s titular song. Joked Swift while receiving her award, “That performance was even more fun than I hoped it would be.â€