Given the undeniable success of Taylor Swift, it would be easy to assume that a massive think tank is behind most of the singer’s career highlights. But it turns out that it was fellow singer Kelly Clarkson who gave Swift a career-defining suggestion that the “Shake It Off” singer has been thanking Clarkson for ever since 2019.
Back in 2019, Swift was embroiled in a battle with producer Scooter Braun’s company, Ithaca Holdings, LLC as the company obtained the rights to the masters of her first six studio albums. “Some fun facts about today’s news: I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world. All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years,” Swift wrote on her Tumblr at the time of the deal, adding that this was her “worst case scenario.”
This is when Clarkson, who apparently didn’t have a direct line to Swift at the time, decided to give the “Wildest Dreams” singer a suggestion via Twitter.
“@taylorswift13 just a thought, U should go in & re-record all the songs that U don’t own the masters on exactly how U did them but put brand new art & some kind of incentive so fans will no longer buy the old versions. I’d buy all of the new versions just to prove a point,” Clarkson suggested on the platform now known as X back in July 2019.
This advice wasn’t just a tweet in the wind; Swift took it to heart and began the process of re-recording her old music. Less than a month after Clarkson made the insightful suggestion, Swift announced that she would be recording her own versions of her chart-topping tracks that she no longer had the masters to, per ET Online. The first album she re-released was Fearless (Taylor’s Version) in April 2021, followed by Red (Taylor’s Version) in November 2021, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) in July 2023 and most recently, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) last month.
So now every time Swift releases her own version of a previously recorded album, she makes sure to send Clarkson flowers, along with gifts specific to the album.
“She just sent me flowers,” Clarkson revealed to an E! reporter, per E News. “She’s so nice. She did. She was like, ‘Every time I release something’—’cause she just did 1989. I got that really cute cardigan, too,” referencing the light blue cardigan Swift released along with the re-recorded album.
Of course, Clarkson believes that even if she didn’t make the career-defining suggestion to Swift, the “Blank Space” singer would have eventually thought of the idea. “I love how kind she is though,” Kelly continued. “She’s a very smart businesswoman. So, she would have thought of that. But it just sucks when you see artists that you admire and you respect really wanting something and it’s special to them. You know if they’re going to find a loophole, you find a loophole. And she did it and literally is, like, the best-selling artist I feel like of all-time now.”
It’s always amazing to see women supporting other women in a business that tends to pit female artists against each other. And given that Clarkson’s talk show has just moved to New York (where Swift has four homes), there could be ample opportunity for the two to work together — or at least Swift can save on postage every time she sends Clarkson gifts for Taylor’s Version of two more albums, Reputation and her self-titled, Taylor Swift.
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