Billboard has issued an apology to Taylor Swift after including a nude wax figure of the singer in a tribute video.
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Earlier this week, the American music and entertainment magazine took to social media to announce Swift as the second greatest pop star of the 21st century.
As part of the honor, the brand released a video commemorating some of the 34-year-old's greatest moments in music. However, one particular shot left her fans fuming.
In the video, Billboard included the naked waxwork figure of Taylor Swift that featured in Kanye West's video for his track 'Famous'.
Upon its release in 2016, the track sparked instant controversy. The video included several nude wax figures of celebrities including Swift and West (as well as Kim Kardashian, Rihanna etc.), and the song featured the lyric: "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that b**ch famous."
The inclusion of the clip sparked outrage from Swift fans in the comments, with one person writing: "You should apologize right now. What happened was truly disgusting!!!"
"You owe Taylor Swift a public apology. Your attitude as a 'serious' music portal was shameful," a second added.
A third fumed: "APOLOGIZE PUBLICLY TO TAYLOR SWIFT!!!!"
And the calls for an apology just kept coming...
Following the backlash, Billboard has since updated the post to include a "Note" in the form of an apology to Swift and the magazine's readers.
"NOTE: We are deeply sorry to Taylor Swift and all of our readers and viewers that in a video celebrating Swift’s achievements, we included a clip that falsely depicted her," the apology read.
"We have removed the clip from our video and sincerely regret the harm we caused with this error."
Following the release of 'Famous', Swift's representatives denied that she had approved of the lyrics, and West claimed that he had played the song for Swift and she had given her blessing.
The controversy escalated when Kim Kardashian released a series of Snapchat videos that appeared to show a phone conversation between West and Swift, in which Swift seemed to approve of the lyric. However, the full audio of the conversation was later released, and it revealed that West had not explicitly told Swift that he would call her a "b****" in the song.
Swift responded by accusing West and Kardashian of "bullying" and "character assassination." She also claimed that the phone call had been edited to make her seem like she had approved of the lyric.
The controversy sparked a massive social media debate, with fans taking sides and famously spamming Kim Kardashian's Instagram comments with snake emojis.
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