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Taylor Swift’s surprise Grammys 2020 performance is no longer happening. The singer has pulled out of it, multiple sources told Variety this afternoon. Her exit will not create problems for the show, the outlet noted, as she hadn’t been announced, and the Grammys has many performers already lined up.
Entertainment Tonight went one further than Variety and reported that Swift won’t be attending the Grammys at all. Swift has three nominations: for Song of the Year (“Lover”), Best Solo Performance (“You Need to Calm Down”), and Best Pop Vocal Album (Lover).
Swift has not commented on this news, and the exact reasoning behind her exit from the show is not clear. The singer was last seen in Park City at the Sundance premiere of Miss Americana on Thursday night.
Meanwhile, the Recording Academy, which oversees the Grammy Awards, is in the midst of a scandal that has dominated headlines this week and tainted the show itself. Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan filed a charge of discrimination with the Los Angeles office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on January 21, days after she was placed on administrative leave on January 16. Dugan had been brought into the role in May 2019, taking over for Neil Portnow.
Dugan alleged she was forced out of the position for raising complaints about sexual harassment, improper voting conduct (she said the voting process was “ripe with corruption”), and conflicts of interest at the company’s highest level. For ELLE.com’s full explainer on what happened, see here.