Taylor Swift has said a leaked 2016 phone call between her and Kanye West proves she was “framed”.
The now infamous call between the pop titans caused years of bad blood, with allegations of lies on both sides.
The row centred on West’s song Famous and to what extent Swift was aware of the lyric “I made that bitch famous”, which she later objected to and called “misogynistic”.
West’s wife, Kim Kardashian West, shared a snippet of the conversation on Snapchat, which appeared to reveal Swift approving of a portion of the lyric.
A full recording of the 25-minute conversation was apparently leaked at the weekend and Swift said on Monday that it proved she had been telling the truth.
She wrote on her Instagram Story: “Instead of answering those who are asking how I feel about the video footage that leaked, proving that I was telling the truth the whole time about *that call* (you know, the one that was illegally recorded, that somebody edited and manipulated in order to frame me and put me, my family, and fans through hell for 4 years)… SWIPE up to see what really matters.”
Swiping up led to a donation page for the Feeding America non-profit organisation.
“The World Health Organisation and Feeding America are some of the organisations I’ve been donating to,” Swift said in a separate post. “If you have the ability to, please join me in donating during this crisis. Swipe up.”
Swift and West have been involved in one of the most high-profile feuds in modern pop music. It was triggered by West interrupting the then 19-year-old Swift on stage at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, where she had won the prize for best female video.
He told a stunned Swift “Imma let you finish” but “Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time”.
The moment has gone down as one of the most quoted in awards show history. It led to years of ill-feeling between two of the world’s biggest pop stars.
On 2016 song Famous, West rapped: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that bitch famous.”
During the phone call, Swift reminded West that before the VMAs incident she had already sold seven million copies of her album Fearless.
The phone call and Kardashian West’s sharing of a portion of it reignited the feud and led to Swift retreating from the public eye to deal with the backlash.
Her next album and tour, Reputation, was dark in theme and dealt with betrayal. During concert performances Swift relied heavily on snake imagery, after trolls used the snake emoji to insinuate she had lied about her conversation with West.