Halsey joins Taylor Swift in highly-anticipated AMAs medley performance

Halsey joined Taylor Swift during her historic American Music Awards performance to accept her award for Artist of the Decade. 

The musician joined swift during “Shake It Off” as she performed a medley of her greatest hits. 

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Halsey was accompanied by Camila Cabello in support for Swift, who opened for the pop artist on her Reputation world tour two summers ago. 

You can see some clips of Swift’s performance below, included Halsey’s addition to the set. 

Swift was met with a standing ovation after her performance and thanked her fellow performers after the set. 

“That performance was even more fun than I hoped it would be,” Swift said while accepting her award. 

Swift later addressed the controversy that lead up to the performance. 

“The fact that this is an award that celebrates a decade of hard work and art,” Swift said. “All that matters to me is the memories that I’ve had with you guys, the fans, over the years.” 

You can see a clip of her acceptance speech below. 

The performance came after Halsey defended Swift when Swift made a statement about Scooter Braun not allowing the pop singer to perform her own music at the show. 

In June, Big Machine Label Group, originally owned by Scott Borchetta, revealed the news that Braun’s Ithaca Holdings agreed to acquire the label which included Swift’s entire catalog she released through BMLG. The back catalog Braun has now acquired from Swift includes her self-titled album, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989 and Reputation.

Swift released a statement via Tumblr stating she learned about the news along with the rest of the world. However, a source told Billboard that Swift’s camp knew about the acquisition since when Big Machine had a shareholder meeting to discuss the deal.

Recently, Swift was named the AMA’s Artist of the Decade, but now the singer is stating she’ll be unable to perform a medley of her post popular tracks on television because of restrictions Borchetta and Braun have made.

“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,” Swift stated on Twitter.

She also announced that Netflix would be releasing a documentary about her life but the two men have refused to let them use her older music and performance footage for the film. Borchetta said to let Swift use her own assets as long as she didn’t re-record her new versions of her old tracks next November.

“The message being sent to me is very clear. Basically, be a good little girl and shut up. Or you’ll be punished,” the pop singer continues. “This is WRONG. Neither of these men had a hand in the writing of those songs. They did nothing to create the relationship I have with my fans. So this is where I’m asking for your help.”

The full statement is available below.

After posting a video of herself singing Swift’s “Mean,” Halsey made a statement of her own regarding the situation through a post on her Instagram story, backing up the singer once again.

“Not only are we looking at an awful business move, but this is just mean. This is punishment. This is hoping to silence her from speaking about things by dangling them over her head.”

The alt-pop singer also posted a video of herself singing Swift’s “Mean” on her Instagram story.

Post Malone leads with the most AMAs nominations at seven followed by Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish with six nominations. Lil Nas X is up for five awards with “Old Town Road” falling into “Collab of the Year” and continuing to break genre barriers with a “Favorite Song – Pop/Rock” and “Favorite Song – Rap/Hip-Hop” nods.

Panic! At The Disco and Halsey follow with three nominations each. Panic! faces off with Eilish and Imagine Dragons for “Favorite Artist – Alternative Rock” as well as BTS and the Jonas Brothers for “Favorite Duo or Group – Pop/Rock.”

Movies also got recognization as Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s “Shallow” is up for “Collab Of The Year” and A Star Is Born faces off with Bohemian Rhapsody and Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse for “Favorite Soundtrack.”

Green Day also performed in celebration of 25 years of Dookie along with Eilish, the Jonas Brothers, Halsey, Kesha, and Malone with Ozzy Osbourne and Travis Scott.

Check out the full list of AMAs winners here

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