Her new single “Shake It Off” is the sound of Taylor Swift telling the world that she doesn’t care what her detractors say anymore — and she’s had more than her fair share over the years.
It’s not surprising to see the star hitting back with the first single from her upcoming album “1989” — Swift has taken heat on everything from her performance to her property, and she hasn’t always been so thick-skinned about her critics.
Here’s a brief rundown of some of Taylor Swift’s most notable haters who have inadvertently helped her launch the next phase of her career.
Amy Poehler and Tina Fey
Poehler and Fey had everyone rolling around with laughter during their stint hosting the 2013 Golden Globes, but Swift wasn’t so amused.
Jibing the singer for her string of boyfriends, they warned her to “stay away from Michael J. Fox’s son.”
Smarting from that pretty tame joke, Swift said in a subsequent Vanity Fair interview that Katie Couric had told her there was a “special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.”
Poehler then responded hilariously by saying that she was a feminist and that she probably was going to hell — “mostly for boring tax stuff.”
Wit was definitely the winner in that battle.
Bob Lefsetz
The veteran music critic penned a harsh critique of Swift following her off-key performance at the 2010 Grammys, arguing that she had probably ruined her career overnight.
Back then, Swift couldn’t quite “Shake It Off” as easily as she can now and thus wrote “Mean” as a response — without realizing that writing a song about a music critic is probably the biggest compliment a singer-songwriter can pay.
Jessica Hart
The Australian model unwittingly landed herself in all kinds of hot water in 2013 after a Victoria’s Secret fashion show where Swift performed.
When asked if she thought the pop star could make it as a lingerie model, she responded with hesitancy and said she didn’t fit into the show.
Within days, rumors swirled that Hart might lose her modeling contract thanks to the insult — and an apology quickly followed.
Miley Cyrus
Miley knows better than to call out someone as big as Swift by name, but in a Rolling Stone interview shortly after the 2013 VMAs, she rejected claims that her own performance was too sexualized, arguing that artists aren’t “supposed to show up in a gown, Vanna White-style.”
It just so happened Swift was rocking the overdressed look on the night in question.
It was a disguised diss — but a diss all the same.
Swift’s Rhode Island neighbors
At the end of 2013, construction outside Swift’s Rhode Island mansion blocked the beach for other residents and surfers, who promptly complained to local officials that the work was being done without permission.
They knew she was trouble when she moved in.