Billboard Exec Crushes Swifties’ Wildest Dreams of Taylor Swift Feature on Beyoncé’s Country Album
Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and Taylor Swift
For a few exciting hours after Beyoncé released her highly anticipated new album on Friday, March 29, some Taylor Swift fans believed they discovered a hidden cameo.
Fans listening closely to “Bodyguard,” the eighth track on Cowboy Carter, suggested on social media that the song’s background vocals sounded like Swift was singing.
“[R]umors say taylor is singing background vocals on this song and lowkey I’m fully believing it until one of them says otherwise,” one fan tweeted. Other Swifties chimed in, saying they “truly believe it’s our tay doing the background vocals!”
But as the rumors began gaining traction online, Billboard’s senior director of music, Jason Lipshutz, stepped in and halted the debate with a single word.
“Nope,” he tweeted.
While some Swifties didn’t appear to be convinced—"She would’ve put an alias if she did,” one fan suggested—Entertainment Tonight also published a detailed list of all of the artists featured on Cowboy Carter, and Swift wasn’t included.
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The suggestion that the “Cruel Summer” singer could appear as a guest on Beyoncé’s new album stemmed from the support each singer provided the other last year as they debuted concert films just a few weeks apart. Beyoncé attended the Los Angeles premiere of Swift’s Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour in mid-October 2023, after which Swift praised the “Crazy in Love” singer for her “generosity of spirit” and “resilience and versatility.”
“She’s been a guiding light throughout my career and the fact that she showed up tonight was like an actual fairytale,” Swift said of Beyoncé while sharing a boomerang video of them on Instagram.
A few weeks later, the “Anti-Hero” songstress attended the London premiere of Beyoncé’s Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé in early December. Swift similarly shared a photo on Instagram of herself posing with “The Queen.”
Both megastars’ fan bases have looked forward to new music since each artist revealed new albums were on the way. Beyoncé announced her new album during a commercial that aired during the 2024 Super Bowl on Feb. 11, and Swift announced her album, The Tortured Poets Department, while at the 2024 Grammy Awards a week earlier.
Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter arrived on March 29. Swift’s new album is due out on April 19.
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