The the American Music Awards this weekend, Taylor Swift was named the Artist Of The Decade. To celebrate the honor, Swift graced the AMAs with a career-spanning medley, and she was joined by Camila Cabello and Halsey.
.@taylorswift13 performing "Shake it Off" alongside @halsey and @Camila_Cabello is a girl power MOOD right now! #AMAs https://t.co/KdqDAcH9zO pic.twitter.com/jpmvD6mco6
— Good Morning America (@GMA) November 25, 2019
The medley — consisting of “The Man,” “Love Story,” “I Knew You Were Trouble,” “Blank Space,” “Shake It Off,” and “Lover” — was made up of songs from throughout Swift’s catalog, including tunes from Lover, 1989, Red, and Fearless. It was during “Shake It Off” that Swift was joined by Cabello and Halsey.
Taylor Swift performs "I Knew You Were Trouble" with that #AMAs Artist of the Decade swagger pic.twitter.com/6IUeQm1LVp
— MTV NEWS (@MTVNEWS) November 25, 2019
Why, yes, that's the one and only Misty Copeland adding a ballet accompaniment to Taylor Swift's "Lover" #AMAs pic.twitter.com/xop21firSK
— MTV NEWS (@MTVNEWS) November 25, 2019
https://twitter.com/MikeAdamOnAir/status/1198798758718427136
This comes after Swift claimed that Big Machine tried to block her from performing her old songs, writing in a blog post, “It’s been announced recently that the American Music Awards will be honoring me with the Artist of the Decade Award at this year’s ceremony. I’ve been planning to perform a medley of my hits through the decade on the show. Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun have now said that I’m not allowed to perform my old songs on television because they claim that would be re-recording my music before I’m allowed to next year.”
Big Machine later responded by saying that the label and Swift had “come to terms on a licensing agreement that approves their artists’ performances to stream post show and for re-broadcast on mutually approved platforms.” They also added that Swift never actually needed their permission to perform the songs, saying, “It should be noted that recording artists do not need label approval for live performances on television or any other live media. Record label approval is only needed for contracted artists’ audio and visual recordings and in determining how those works are distributed.”
Watch clips from Swift, Cabello, and Halsey’s performance above.