Taylor Swift delivered an emphatic speech after being named Billboard's Woman Of The Decade.
The pop star was given the award at a ceremony last night – December 12th – and used her platform to address her experiences as a woman in the music industry.
She reflected: "When this decade began I was 20 years old. I saw that as a female in this industry, some people will always have the slightest reservations about you."
"Whether a male producer or co-writer was the reason for your success, or whether it was a savvy record label (responsible for your success). It wasn’t," Taylor insisted. "People want to explain away a woman’s success in this industry."
"All of a sudden they weren’t sure if I was the one writing the songs, because sometimes I had co-writers in the room. This is what happens to a woman in music if she achieves success beyond people’s comfort level."
Taylor Swift addressed public and media perceptions of her, before touching on her recent legal wrangle with Scooter Braun.
"Lately there’s been a new shift that has affected me personally, and as your resident loud person, I feel like I need to bring it up," she said. "And that’s the unregulated world of private equity coming in and buying up our music as if it’s real estate, or an app, or a shoe line."
"This happened to me without my approval, consultation or consent. Scooter never contacted me or my team to discuss it prior to the sale."
She added: "(It’s) the definition of the toxic male privilege in our industry to say: 'Well, he’s always been nice to me…' Of course he’s nice to you; if you’re in this room, you have something he needs."
Watch the speech below.
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