Taylor Swift released three new digital versions of “The Tortured Poets Department” on Friday, the same day Billie Eilish’s album “Нit Me Hard And Soft” debuted, sparking speculation that Taylor’s camp aimed to overshadow the 22-year-old’s first album since 2021.
Billie had long scheduled May 17 for her album release, while Taylor’s surprise drop seemed to come out of nowhere, potentially affecting Eilish’s streaming numbers and drawing reactions from fans.
This incident is not the first time Taylor has been accused of overshadowing another prominent female artist. One Eilish fan wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “Doing this on her album release day is so nasty.”
Another fan commented, “Just last year, @taylorswift dropped new digital versions of her then 3-month-old album to block SZA from the #1 spot on the albums chart, and here she is doing the exact same thing, except Billie Eilish hasn’t even dropped her new album.”
However, some fans urged a more reasonable perspective. One person wrote, “@taylorswift and @billieeilish are not beefing through F*CKING VINYL VARIANTS – y’all are INSUFFERABLE. Stop putting wоmen against each other to defend your favourite. It’s embarrassing.”
Another added, “I think it’s very unnecessary to turn these two wоmen simply promoting their new albums into an imaginary beef.”
In 2017, Taylor similarly released her entire catalog on Spotify on the same day Katy Perry dropped her new album “Witness,” despite a longstanding boycott of the streaming service. When asked about it, Perry responded on the Today Show, “I don’t know, I can only do me,” and later extended an olive branch by sаying, “All I need to sаy to [Taylor Swift] is I love her and God bless her on her journey.”