Fans accuse Taylor Swift of sabotaging Billie Eilish’s album release

Taylor Swift was criticized online this week for releasing three new renditions of “The Tortured Poets Department” one day before Billie Eilish released “Һit Me Hard and Soft.”

Thursday night, the “Tortured Poets Department” variations were released online. Each edition includes a bonus version of “The Black Dog,” “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” or “Cassandra.”

Eilish has teased “Һit Me Hard and Soft” since April. Given the hype surrounding the nine-time Grammy winner’s new album, several fans accused Swift of trying to outperform “Һit Me Hard and Soft” on the charts.

Billie Eilish & Taylor Swift's Friendship Timeline From 2014 To Now

On X, formerly Twitter, one user wrote: “I love you Taylor, but this is greedy.” couldn’t release last week or next? Since #1 is up for grabs this week, you must perform these stunts. it’s exhausting.”

Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish moments

Another X user said Eilish’s criticism of excessive album versions “really got into” Swift, adding that “doing this on her album release day is so nasty.”

Others defended Swift by saying that was typical of the music industry.

“This is a competitive industry, shes not playing any stunt shes following the rollout,” one wrote. Even if it wasn’t, why should Taylor move?

Since April 19, “The Tortured Poets Department” has topped the Billboard 200 chart, which ranks the 200 most popular albums in the country. First week sales exceeded 2.6 million copies of the album.

Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish at Billboard Event Pictures | POPSUGAR  Celebrity UK

The new “Tortured Poets Department” versions are only available online, although Eilish has slammed musicians who produce several vinyl editions of their albums and singles to boost sales.

“I can’t even express to you how wasteful it is,” she told Billboard in March.

“It’s right in front of our faces and people are just getting away with it left and right, and I find it really frustrating as someone who goes out of my way to be sustainable and do the best I can and try to involve my team in being sustainable, and then some of the biggest artists in the world make f–king 40 different vinyl packages that have a different unique thing just to get you to keep buying more.”

Billie Eilish unveiled her new album, "Hit Me Hard and Soft," on Friday.

Note that Eilish did not nаme any artists she mentioned. However, many saw her comments as a swipe at Swift, whose Grammy-winning “Midnights” was released in 2022 on several vinyl formats.

Following Swift and other artists’ backlash, Eilish explained on Instagram that she had just wаnted to highlight “industry-wide systemic issues” in her Billboard interview.

She wrote: “Many artists release variants, including me!” as stated in the article. The climate catastrophe is real, and we all need to do better.”