Taylor Swift has had to jump through a whole bunch of hoops to ensure Scooter Braun gets as little money as possible from her old work, but her latest feat of musical gymnastics is one that is both incredibly complicated and marvellous to behold.
So, a cover of her 2017 diss-track-but-not-really ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ played during a recent episode of hit television show Killing Eve, which stars Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer.
The cover was performed by a band called Jack Leopards & The Dolphin Club, which appears to be their first ever song…like, ever.
VERY STOKED about this cover of lwymmd on @KillingEve by Jack leopards & the dolphin club!! pic.twitter.com/fhkLfOssfm
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) May 25, 2020
Now this would be curious enough, but then we take a look at the cover’s writing credits. It lists the original writers, including Swift, and then lists Jack Antonoff and Nils Sjöberg as the cover’s producers.
To the untrained eye, this means nothing. But, those who are in the know will recognise that Nils Sjöberg is a pseudonym adopted by Swift herself as a co-writer on ex-boyfriend Calvin Harris’ 2016 song ‘This Is What You Came For’.
While it’s unclear who is performing the vocals on the cover, it seems that Taylor Swift has re-recorded and re-produced one of her own songs under a fake name, within a fake band, in an effort to make sure that Braun gets no royalties or licensing fees. It’s genius.
The feud between Swift and Braun has been long and vitriolic, kicking off when Braun purchased Swift’s old record label Big Machine, and thus owning masters to every Taylor Swift album excluding 2019’s Lover.
Most recently, Swift slammed Braun for releasing an old live album without her permission.
But, as of right now, we’re point one to Swift.
