Taylor Swift laughed at the idea of forgiving longtime nemesis Kanye West during her show at Lumen Field in Seattle on Saturday, on her latest stop on her Eras Tour.
The Grammy-winner decided to perform – for the first time in five years – her 2017 track This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, which was a diss track aimed at West, 46, after multiple conflicts over the years, most notably his interruption of her speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
While she was performing a acoustic version of the song, Swift began laughing as she said, in a reference to West, ‘And here’s to you, ’cause forgiveness is a nice thing to do.’
The 33-year-old songstress continued chuckling as she confessed, ‘I can’t even say it with a straight face.’
The Shake It Off singer’s impromptu performance inspired much social media feedback from fans who have kept tabs on the longtime bad blood between the musical powerhouses.
The seeds of the feud were planted at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards on September 13, 2009 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
In the infamous exchange, West infamously interrupted Swift during her victory speech for the Best Female Video award for You Belong With Me, which had been nominated against Beyonce’s Single Ladies.
West emerged on the stage and took the microphone from Swift, telling her, ‘Yo, Taylor, I’m really happy for you, I’mma let you finish. But Beyonce had one of the best videos of all-time! One of the best videos of all-time.’
While the musical stars appeared to be on better terms in the years following – they were pictured at a number of events in the years after – things blew up after the release of West’s 2016 song Famous.
West claimed at the time that Swift had given him her blessing to refer to her as a ‘B****’ in the lyrics of the song, in a reference to the VMAs incident.
Swift said she never made such an agreement, leading to a public feud with West after he and his former wife Kim Kardashian in July of 2016 released a call West and Swift had over the contents of the Famous song.
Kardashian alluded to Swift as a snake upon the release of the call, saying in a tweet, ‘Wait it’s legit National Snake Day?!?!?They have holidays for everybody, I mean everything these days!’
Swift in 2019 spoke to Vogue about how she dealt with the high-profile scandal, saying she channeled her energies into her 
The seeds of the feud were planted at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards on September 13, 2009 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City
‘A mass public shaming, with millions of people saying you are quote-unquote canceled, is a very isolating experience,’ she said of the difficult time. ‘When you say someone is canceled, it’s not a TV show. It’s a human being.
‘You’re sending mass amounts of messaging to this person to either shut up, disappear, or it could also be perceived as, “Kill yourself.”‘
She opened up about the creative process in the wake of the scandal, which purportedly inspired the tracks This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things and Look What You Made Me Do.
‘I knew immediately I needed to make music about it because I knew it was the only way I could survive it,’ Swift told the outlet. ‘It was the only way I could preserve my mental health and also tell the story of what it’s like to go through something so humiliating.’
While Swift continues to build on her plaudits and reputation, West’s career has tumbled in the six months since a December 1, 2022 appearance on Alex Jones’ show Infowars in which he lavished praise on Nazis and Adolf Hitler.
‘He didn’t kill six million Jews,’ West said on the program, in which he appeared alongside white supremacist Nick Fuentes. ‘That’s just factually incorrect. I’m not trying to be shocking.’
He continued: ‘I like Hitler. The Holocaust is not what happened … Hitler has a lot of redeeming qualities … every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler.’
The appearance came prior to West being banned from Twitter later that day for posting a picture of a swastika interlaced with a Star of David
The turbulent day capped off a two-month stretch in which West dominated the headlines after making a series of anti-Semitic remarks, leading to a number of companies to break ties with him.
The race-related controversies kicked off October 3, 2022 when he and and conservative commentator Candace Owens donned tops that read White Lives Matter during a Paris Fashion Week showcase for his Yeezy line.
West faced restrictions on his social media sites after he tweeted October 8: ‘I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE … ‘
He continued: The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also … you guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.’
Appearing on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ show, West said he saw ‘good things’ about Adolf Hitler and Nazis
West in October made headlines for a Paris Fashion Week showcase for his Yeezy line that saw him and conservative commentator Candace Owens don tops that read White Lives Matter on the back
The professional fallout to West’s repeated statements about anti-Semitism included Adidas cutting their ties with him October 25 over his conduct.
Foot Locker and Gap pledged to remove Yeezy from its shelves, while fashion mainstays including Vogue magazine and Balenciaga publicly distanced themselves from the rapper/fashion designer.
The talent agency CAA dropped West from its roster, while a documentary about West made by the studio MRC was shelved.
