Taylor Swift had a grand old time at the Academy of Country Music Awards this week, pulling out “Betty,” the popular new song from her album Folklore to croon to everyone watching. Unfortunately, “Betty” is a song about complicated love triangles and features quite a bit of angst, as well as f-bombs in the chorus. That was obviously not kosher with singing on TV, and fans had a lot of fun with the performance on the Internet as it was rolling out.
First and foremost, it’s worth pointing out that no one was mad at T Swizzle here. Girl wrote a great song allegedly named after Ryan Reynold’s and Blake Lively’s third daughter and she included some f-bombs to make a point. Most of us are adults and can handle her singing, “Would you tell me to go fuck myself/Or lead me to the garden?” while listening to the album. But the TV censors that be are not OK with said performance. So, it ended up sounding like this:
As you can see, if you aren’t too distracted by Taylor Swift’s epic bangs and shiny outfit, Swift found a way around the censors and still managed to maintain a bit of edge in the song. There are no f-bombs in the chorus, with Taylor Swift instead asking, “Would you tell me to go straight to hell?” However, she also does it with a bit of a knowing smile on her face, which the fanbase absolutely noticed.
She’s not the only one to catch the cheeky nod to the fans who have already poured hours into listening to every single word of Folklore and who would have immediately caught the change.
Though another fan was really tired while watching the Academy of Country Music Awards and was definitely not in the loop. So, I’m not sure everyone caught “hell” being swapped for “fuck.”
Other fans were so touched by the performance, they were still thinking of it this morning when they woke up.
Taylor Swift can even count some major celebs among her fanbase and at least one was simply happy about the performance, whether or not it changed some of the lyrics. In fact, actress, producer and proud Mama, and Carrie Underwood look-alike Reese Witherspoon showed her own support for the performance on Twitter with a shiny, happy tweet.
At the end of the day, Taylor Swift did her own makeup and hair for this virtual performance. She stayed true to herself and wore a more regular wardrobe than we’re used to from country music heavy hitters. This version of “Betty” was one of the highlights of the night, and even though really I don’t know anything, I’m very happy I didn’t miss it.
