Why Taylor Swift Skipped the 2020 Grammys

From ELLE

What would have been the biggest night of Taylor Swift's award season has begun, and she decided to skip it.

The singer is not at the Grammys tonight, despite her three nominations: Song of the Year ("Lover"), Best Solo Performance ("You Need to Calm Down"), and Best Pop Vocal Album (Lover). (She did not win Best Pop Vocal Album, which was announced before the broadcast nor did she win Best Solo Performance.)

Swift was first reported to be skipping the Grammys on Friday by Entertainment Tonight. Variety also reported that multiple sources said Swift was pulling out of her surprise performance, too. The reasoning wasn't clear, though Variety speculated it could be because of the Recording Academy's sexism scandal, which has dominated news coverage surrounding the show.

Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan filed a charge of discrimination with the Los Angeles office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on January 21, days after she was placed on administrative leave on January 16. Dugan had been brought into the role in May 2019, taking over for Neil Portnow.

Dugan alleged she was forced out of the position for raising complaints about sexual harassment, improper voting conduct (she said the voting process was "ripe with corruption"), and conflicts of interest at the company's highest level. (For ELLE.com's full explainer on what happened, see here.)

Swift has attended other award shows this season, even though she isn't at the Grammys tonight. The singer was at the Golden Globes, where she was a nominee for her song for Cats ("Beautiful Ghosts," which had a Best Original Song nomination) and a presenter during the ceremony. Alwyn attended the award show with her and sat next to her at her table. The two had several PDA moments during their rare, very public date. Up until the Golden Globes, Alwyn and Swift had never attended an awards show together. They had only gone to after parties.

Swift and Alwyn did not walk the red carpet together at the Golden Globes, and throughout their three years of dating, they've never posed together at an event photo call. Their date at the Golden Globes, however, signals that could change.

While Swift does not have an Oscar nomination, there's a chance she could attend that ceremony—or one of the night's after parties—next month, as Alwyn has been attending for his project Harriet. Swift also has her Netflix documentary, Miss Americana, coming out on January 31. She was seen at its Sundance premiere on Thursday.

You Might Also Like

• 10 Pairs of White Sneakers That Go With Everything

• 50 Surprising Things You Never Knew About 'Sex and the City'

• 20 Serums to Solve All Your Skincare Problems