Taylor Swift reveals she's been blocked from performing old hits at the AMA's by ex-label bosses

Big Machine Label Group, the label that owns the masters of Taylor Swift's first six albums, was acquired by Scooter Braun in June. When Swift found out about Braun taking over Big Machine, she wrote on Tumblr, "I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world. All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years."

She added, "Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it."

Since the initial Tumblr post, there has been a bit of back and forth with Swift revealing back in August that she's planning to re-record her early releases.

Yesterday (14 November), Swift posted a statement on Twitter revealing that she's "not allowed to perform my old songs on television" because of her row with Braun and Borchetta.

Swift writes, "It's been announced recently that the American Music Awards will be honoring me with the Artist of the Decade Award at this year's ceremony. I've been planning to perform a medley of my hits throughout the decade on the show. Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun have now said that I'm not allowed to perform my old songs on television because they claim that would be re-recording my music before i'm allowed to next year."

The singer adds, "Netflix has created a documentary about my life for the past few years. Scott and Scooter have declined the use of my older music or performance footage for this project, even though there is no mention of either of them or Big Machine Records anywhere in the film."

Swift goes on to list the conditions that Borchetta has given Swift's team for if he does allow the Netflix documentary to use her old music and performance footage, "If I agree to not re-record copycat versions of my songs next year (which is something I'm both legally allowed to do and looking forward to) and also told my team that I need to stop talking about him [Borchetta] and Scooter Braun."

The Lover artist goes on to write, "The message being sent to me is very clear. Basically, be a good girl and shut up. Or you'll be punished. This is WRONG. Neither of these men had a hand in the writing of those songs. They did nothing to create the relationship I have with my fans. So this is where I'm asking for your help."

Swift asks for fans to let Braun and Borchetta know how they feel about Swift's statement, and to get other artists involved so they can hopefully "talk some sense into the men who are exercising tyrannical control over someone who just wants to play the music she wrote."

Don’t know what else to do pic.twitter.com/1uBrXwviTS

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) November 14, 2019