Taylor Swifts bad Grammy performance blamed on technical issue

Even though I didn’t see it, I heard that Taylor Swift’s Grammy performance with Stevie Nicks was somewhat wack. I kind of thought people were just hating on Swifty just because it seems like the girl can’t take a breath without someone jumping up her ass. And then I looked up the video. Yeah. Swifty was rough that night. Here’s the video:

Anyway, either Swifty was so bad or the criticism was so rough that Swifty’s record label has stepped up to defend her. Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta tells that press that Swifty’s bad performance was all about “a volume problem in the ear. So, she was concerned that she wasn’t able to hear everything in the mix. That’s just part of live TV. … So you’re going to have difficulties on occasion. Unfortunately, on one of the biggest stages, we did have a technical issue. She couldn’t hear herself like she had in rehearsal.” Hmm… do you buy it?

The head of Taylor Swift’s record label is fired up and ready to defend his superstar from people who are criticizing her Grammy-night performance.

“She is the voice of this generation. She speaks directly to (her fans), and they speak directly back to her,” said Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta in a phone interview. “This is not `American Idol.’ This is not a competition of getting up and seeing who can sing the highest note. This is about a true artist and writer and communicator. It’s not about that technically perfect performance.”

Borchetta first responded to the backlash in The Tennessean. Asked by The Associated Press why he felt the need to defend Swift, he said because the criticism was “just over the top. It’s that classic thing that critics do of building something up and then wanting to tear it down.”

Swift rehearsed her performance and duet with Stevie Nicks two different times at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in front of a crowd of people. Critics were nicer then. Entertainment Weekly wrote of the rehearsal, “The two women’s voices complimented each other nicely on the harmonies of `Rhiannon …'”

But on Sunday night’s Grammy show, Borchetta said Swift had a technical issue that made her worry about her performance. (Attempts to reach The Recording Academy for comment went unanswered.)

“We had a volume problem in the ear. So, she was concerned that she wasn’t able to hear everything in the mix,” Borchetta said. “That’s just part of live TV. … So you’re going to have difficulties on occasion. Unfortunately, on one of the biggest stages, we did have a technical issue. She couldn’t hear herself like she had in rehearsal.”

As quickly as you could say “Fearless,” bloggers and media outlets, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, pounced on Swift’s performance. The chatter at times overshadowed the four Grammys she won – including album of the year.

Borchetta said he doesn’t need critics to give the 20-year-old the benefit of the doubt: “What we have is so much bigger than that. Am I going to ask them to turn their heads, no, I don’t need them to.”

It’s doubtful her fans will abandon Swift anytime soon, judging by the congratulations and positive comments on her Facebook and MySpace pages, or that those with tickets to the second leg of her sold-out “Fearless” tour will throw them away because she had a bad night. And with that, Borchetta has a message to all of her critics.

“If you haven’t seen her live performance, you’re welcome to come out as my guest to a Taylor Swift show and experience the whole thing, because it’s amazing. You can see her in her element. There’s a reason tickets are selling like they are.”

Swift’s “Fearless” album has sold over 5 million copies and was last year’s top-selling album. She is the youngest artist to ever win the Grammys’ top prize of album of the year. She will resume the “Fearless” tour March 4 in Tampa, Florida.

[From The Huffington Post]

Here’s the thing – I used to be a deejay, and while I’m not saying that’s comparable to doing a live performance on stage at the Grammys, I will say that many, many people have a tough time when their ear pieces or headphones aren’t properly synced up to the mic. And once you do have some kind of minor technical difficulty, it’s difficult to shake it off and get back in sync. Swifty should have just taken out her earpiece and tried to sync up to Stevie Nicks live, but shoulda, woulda, coulda. Poor Swifty.

Taylro Swift at the Grammys on January 31, 2010. Credit: WENN.

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