New editions of The Tortured Poets Department released exclusively to people in the UK have stoked rumors that Taylor Swift is attempting to keep Charli XCX from topping the charts.
The Eras Tour is currently in the UK, with Swiftie’s flocking to Anfield Stadium, Liverpool, to enjoy three nights of the sold-out run. To commemorate her time in the UK, Taylor Swift announced six new versions of her most recent album, The Tortured Poets Department (TPPD), exclusive to British audiences – though some people have speculated that this may have been a calculated move, rather than a sincere gift to her fans across the pond…
The internet thinks Taylor Swift is trying to keep Charli XCX off the top of the album charts
In an update posted by her management account Taylor Nation, it was confirmed that British Swifties would have the chance to purchase six new versions of TTPD, for an extremely limited amount of time.
The options were all digital albums, three of which contained an acoustic recording of a different track recorded live in Paris, while the other half of the new albums each contained a different demo recording of a song from the album.
While it is not unlike Taylor to release new versions of her music, with several different TTPD albums having been sold already, many people online were skeptical about the timing of the UK-only releases – which were only on sale for five hours.
Specifically, fans of Charli XCX couldn’t help but notice that the announcement came just moments before counting for the official British album charts stopped for the week – suggesting that Taylor and her team were making a last-minute push for the number one album spot.
The announcement followed a midweek update from the Official Charts Company which saw Taylor trailing Charli in third place, with the British singer said to be just 150 units off rock icon Bon Jovi as of June 12.
Charli released her sixth studio album, Brat, to immediate critical claim last week – prompting anger among her sizeable fanbase online, many of whom are accusing Taylor of deliberately attempting to steal her spotlight by potentially preventing her from her second coveted number-one album spot.
Brats hit out at ’embarrassing’ Taylor Swift
While the music industry runs on numbers, and she clearly has an audience who are keen to pay for whatever she releases, Taylor and her team have come under a great deal of criticism over this week’s album chart debacle.
In a post that has been viewed over three million times in less than 24 hours, the release of the limited edition UK albums was labeled “comically embarrassing”, as several thousand Charli fans flocked to Twitter (X) to make their feelings clear.
“At first i did think this theory was a bit dramatic, and it was just coincidental”, wrote one fan in response, “but it’s happened so many times now that it really is a joke. Like that is embarrassing.”
“I don’t ever want to hear her fans call other acts chart obsessed ever again”, added another viewer. “this is beyond pathetic”.
One Charli stan even went to the lengths of making a mock-up version of the deluxe Brat cover to mock Taylor:
Even some Swift stans were dismayed by the apparent charts push, with one confused stan writing: “Look I’m a swiftie but even I gotta admit that this is some wack ass behavior”.
With the cutoff window for the Official UK Album Charts having slammed shut at midnight, fans will have to wait until this week’s winner is unveiled, which could be anytime between 11am and 12:45pm, ET.
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