Recommendations of the Editorial team
The song “Father Figure” inspired by George Michael on Taylor Swift’s new album “The Life of a Showgirl” shows the singer combative. She slips into the role of a man who was once a kind of father figure for her and sings provocative lines like: “I Can Make Deals with the Devil Because My Dick’s Bigger.”
Betrayal, contracts and lost loyalty
But who sings about here? Everything points to Scott Borchetta. The label boss, who signed her at Big Machine Records at the age of 15 after discovering them in the legendary Bluebird Café. However, the pain in the center of “Father Figure” stems from the deep disappointment that was created when Borchetta sold her music archive to the controversial manager Scooter Braun. This started a six -year dispute over the rights to Swift’s songs. And ultimately their “Taylor’s version” new publications.
In 2019, Swift explained her view of things in detail on Tumblr. She felt exploited by the original contract. “I got the offer to re -sign at Big Machine Records and earn back one of my old people for every new album,” she wrote. The greatest injury, however, was that Borchetta sold the label – and thus her life’s work – to Braun.
“I never thought in my worst nightmares that the buyer would be scooter. Whenever Scott Borchetta heard the name ‘Scooter Braun’ from me, I was either crying or trying to do it,” SWIFT continued. “Something like this happens when you sign someone at 15 for whom ‘loyalty’ is only a concept of contract.” In “Father Figure” she pulls the direct parallel: “They don’t make make loyalty like they used to.”
Old wounds in new songs
Swift had already processed the betrayal musically – especially on “Folklore” and “Evermore” (2020). In “My Tears Ricochet” she describes the loss of her life’s work with the metaphor of her own funeral. In the bridge she sings: “And I Still Talk to You (when I’m screaming at the sky)/and when you can’t sleep at night (you hear my stolen Lullabies).”
The reference to Borchetta becomes even clearer on “Evermore”: In “Right Where You Left Me” it is “frozen in time”, and in “It’s time to go” she sings: “He’s got my Past Frozen Behind Glass / But i’VE got me” – a clear allusion to her first six album to get back.
On the other side of the dispute
“Father Figure” shows Swift as the winner. In May she bought her master’s rights back. At the end of the song she turns the narrative perspective: from the voice of Borchetta again becomes her own. The repeated line “I Protect The Family” is striking – sung six times, probably as a reference to the six albums, which she once took for “Big Machine”.
Today Swift owns her own work and makes her decisions. Scott Borchetta is still CEO of the now “Big Machine Label Group” – he has not publicly commented on Swift since 2020.