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At this time last year, it felt like the world was piling on Taylor Swift. Sound familiar? Almost one year ago exactly, the 2015 VMA nominations came out, and Taylor got ten nominations, most of them for her I-Hate-Katy-Perry anthem, “Bad Blood.” But that wasn’t why people were piling on Taylor – we were talking about her because she inserted herself into a conversation Nicki Minaj was having about how MTV consistently undervalues black artists, and how black artists are less likely to be nominated for the bigger awards. When everyone turned on Taylor last year, she quickly changed strategies, calling Minaj personally to apologize and then offering a public apology as well. Minaj and Swift buried the hatchet so thoroughly, in fact, that they joined forces for a song medley at the beginning of the 2015 VMAs.

Last year, Taylor also won a few VMAs, but probably the most notable thing to happen during last year’s telecast is that Taylor and Kanye West very publicly made peace. She presented Kanye with his Video Vanguard Award and she made a very gracious and kind speech. Then, just six months later, all hell broke loose and now we’re in the midst of another Swift-West Cold War. Why bring up this history lesson? Because I think MTV might have chosen a side. And they didn’t choose Team Swifty!!! The 2016 VMA nominations came out on Tuesday and Taylor wasn’t nominated for ANYTHING. Nothing. Not Video of the Year, Not Best Female Video, nothing.

Taylor Swift received zero nominations, a surprising turn of events for the 26-year-old singer, who led the pack of honorees at last year’s ceremony with 10 nominations for “Bad Blood.” In the past year, the six-time VMA winner has released three music videos — “Wildest Dreams,” “Out of the Woods” and “New Romantics” — from her latest album, 1989.

Although the cinematic “Wildest Dreams” visual debuted during the 2015 VMA preshow, the network neglected to recognize it nearly a year later. “Out of the Woods” also landed a high-profile premiere on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve in December 2015, but it was overlooked, too.

[From Us Weekly]

“Wildest Dreams” was the neo-colonialist nightmare video where Swift and Scott Eastwood played lovers in a 1950s-themed film set in an African country. “Out of the Woods” was not a good video either – that was the one where she was running in the wilderness or something. I didn’t even remember the “New Romantics” video, but I looked it up and it was just footage from her tour. None of those singles or videos had the pop-culture power of “Bad Blood” or “Black Space,” but if this was a different year, I do think Taylor would have gotten a handful of nominations for something, right? This was a choice made by someone at MTV to focus on Beyonce, Adele and… Kanye West, who got two nominations, including one for Video of the Year for “Famous.” Even Calvin Harris got nominated (for the song Taylor Swift wrote/co-wrote). Maybe it was just a choice by MTV to make the night about something other than Kanye vs Taylor, or Taylor vs. Everyone Else, or The Taylor Show. I hope Taylor is keeping a list of all of the people who have pissed her off in the past month. Payback is coming, Swifty-Style.

Photos courtesy of WENN.
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