Justin Bieber is standing by his manager Scooter Braun amid his ongoing feud with Taylor Swift.
On Thursday, The Shake It Off hitmaker claimed Braun and Scott Borchetta, her former record label boss at Big Machine Label Group who sold Taylor’s masters to the executive, blocked her from performing her old hits on TV, including at next week’s American Music Awards, as well as in a new Netflix documentary about her life.
The music moguls have insisted Swift’s allegations are based on “false information”, making it clear they “do not have the right to keep her from performing live anywhere”, but fans and stars alike have backed Swift, voicing their support on social media and starting a petition.
However, taking to his Instagram Stories, Bieber made it clear he’s remaining loyal to Braun, reposting a screenshot of a TMZ article claiming Swift is “dead wrong” for claiming she is no longer allowed to perform her old songs.
The Sorry hitmaker riled fans of the ME! singer earlier this year by siding with his manager when he purchased Big Machine and with it the rights to the masters of her first six albums. He also poked fun at Swift by recreating a viral clip of her getting emotional over bananas, which aired on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon earlier this month.
In paparazzi footage posted on YouTube, however, he later insisted there’s no bad blood between the pair, telling reporters: “We’ve always been cool.”
Following Swift’s allegations, it was reported Big Machine bosses were forced to shut down their offices early on Friday, due to direct and hostile death threats being made to employees of the company, with fans apparently going to extremes to leak personal contact information and addresses of company staff.