Taylor Swift’s Fearless rewrites will be eligible for Grammy … but not songwriting

Taylor Swift’s re-recordings of successful tracks from her album Fearless will be eligible for Grammy performance awards – but not for any songwriting accolades.

The star, 31, recently announced that she is ready to release a revamped edition of her 2008 album, dubbed Fearless (Taylor’s Version), which comes with six new songs.

By re-recording the entire LP, the singer is regaining control of her music after the Scooter Braun record executive sold them in November 2020.

And now the Recording Academy has declared that the re-recorded tracks, including Love Story, can only be nominated for performance, not for writing.

A Grammy spokesman told Billboard: ‘The current eligibility rules would allow new performances and albums to be eligible if they had been recorded in the past five years.

‘However, none of the older songs would be eligible for songwriting awards.’

This rule does not apply to the six new tracks that Taylor intends to release along with his classics, which can also be nominated for songwriting awards.

The re-recordings have won Grammys before, with Elton John taking home the Best Male Vocal Pop gong in 1997, after remaking Candle in the Wind.

Taylor’s re-recorded version of the 2008 single Love Story has already got off to a strong start, after gaining 10,000 download sales on its first day.

The new Love Story recording was released after midnight on Friday, February 12, but it quickly eclipsed current sales of the original music and even surpassed many other contemporary tracks, according to Billboard.

Only three songs from the week ending February 4 were able to sell more than 10,000 downloads of Love Story (Taylor’s Version) on February 12: Tom MacDonald’s Fake Woke with 14,000 downloads, BTS ‘Dynamite with 13,000 and Olivia’s driver’s license Rodrigo, also with 13,000 lower sales.

This is particularly impressive, as it was only on February 11 that Taylor announced that he had re-recorded the album and announced the release of the single the next day.

Compared to the re-recorded version, the original Love Story sold just 200 downloads on February 12.

The song has sold a total of 6.13 million downloads since it was released 12 years ago, but it only sold an “insignificant amount” in the days leading up to the release of the new version.

The two versions were described as quite similar, and Taylor even used the same musicians on his new track as he did on the original, according to Pitchfork.

This ensures that the same people who helped create the original recording will continue to get paid for their performances as people download and stream the new song.

Last week, hitmaker Shake It Off announced the highly anticipated relaunch, saying on social media: ‘I am very happy to say that my new version of Fearless (Taylor’s version) is ready and will be with you soon.

‘It has 26 songs, including 6 songs never released from the vault. Love Story (Taylor’s version) will be released tonight. ‘

The album is available for order, and a hidden message in a note suggested that it could be released in April.

In a long statement, she added: ‘Artists should have their own work for many reasons, but the most glaring and obvious thing is that the artist is the only one who really * knows * this body of work.

‘For example, only I know which songs I wrote that almost made the Fearless album.

‘Songs that I absolutely loved, but were retained for different reasons (I don’t want a lot of ending songs, I don’t want a lot of songs down time, it doesn’t fit that many songs on a physical CD).

“These reasons seem unnecessary now. I decided that I want you to have the whole story, see the whole vivid image and let it enter the whole dream landscape that is my fearless album.

That’s why I chose to include 6 songs never before released on my version of this album. written when I was between 16 and 18, these are the ones that killed me to leave behind. ‘

Now in complete control of her first six albums (after Scooter Braun sold the masters in November after acquiring her old Big Loud label in June), she was able to re-record her entire catalog under her new Republic Records label.

In June 2019, the award-winning artist claimed that the Scooter label executive, 39, released his studio albums and took ownership of his masters in a $ 300 million deal without his knowledge.

Taylor has re-recorded his song released from 2006 until 2017, after the entire Big Machine Label Group catalog was sold to Scooter.

The albums included in Taylor’s seemingly kidnapped documents are Taylor Swift (2006), Fearless (2008), Speak Now (2010), Red (2012), the ever popular 1989 (2014) and Reputation (2017).

Reputation was her last album on her 12-year contract with Big Machine Records, before she signed a new multi-album contract with Big Machine distributor Universal Music Group in November 2018.

Although the catalog was resold to Shamrock Holdings, the media personality was able to take control of their albums by relaunching the songs under their contract, according to EW.

Taylor accused Justin Bieber’s manager of ‘manipulative bullying’, and since the sides, through friends, have publicly had a he-said-she-said.

His lawyer previously explained: ‘Scott Borchetta [former owner of Big Machine Records] never gave Taylor Swift the opportunity to buy his masters, or the record company, directly with a check in the way he apparently is now doing for others. ‘

Scooter’s Ithaca Holdings LLC purchased Nashville’s independent record label Big Machine, founded by Scott Borchetta in 2005 in June 2019, for just over $ 300 million.

The deal could reach $ 450 million, according to the entertainment publication. It included all the songs from his first six albums, along with all of his video clips recorded during that period and the album cover.