Why Taylor’s ‘Midnights’ Isn’t Nominated

Taylor Swift followers have a “Question…?” for the 2022 American Music Awards: Why isn’t Midnights nominated?

The pop star, 32, is up for six trophies at this 12 months’s music awards, which happen on Sunday, November 20. Among Swift’s quite a few nominations is her ninth profession Artist of the Year nod. She faces stiff competitors within the class from ex Harry Styles, Beyoncé, Bad Bunny and extra.

Along with the ceremony’s high honor, the “Willow” songstress is nominated for Favorite Female Pop Artist and Favorite Female Country Artist. She crosses genres but once more with the up to date Red (Taylor’s Version), which is featured in each the Favorite Pop Album and Favorite Country Album classes. All Too Well: The Short Film, which accompanied the 10-minute rendition of her breakup anthem, earned a nod for Favorite Music Video.

While she has loads of alternatives so as to add to her trophy assortment on the 2022 AMAs, some Swifties had been left questioning why not one of the Cats star’s work from this 12 months is being acknowledged. The “Anti-Hero” artist dropped her tenth studio album, Midnights, final month — and rapidly broke streaming data.

Despite the album’s instantaneous success, it was not noted of the awards dialog as a result of interval of eligibility. For this 12 months’s AMAs, solely tasks launched between September 24, 2021, and September 22, 2022, had been in a position to be nominated, that means Midnights missed the cutoff.

The “Long Story Short” singer has an extended historical past with the AMAs, profitable a grand whole of 34 trophies from the occasion since 2008. While she attended the 2021 affair, she was noticeably absent from the earlier ceremony — for good purpose.

“Thank you so much for this. This is a fan-voted award, which means so much to me,” Swift instructed awards present viewers in November 2020. “You guys have been beyond wonderful all the years of my career but especially this one when we’ve been so far apart. We haven’t been able to see each other in concert, but I still feel really connected to you through the music, your reaction to Folklore and all the ways in which your imagination honored that album. I just love you so much, and I’m really, really lucky because of you.”

At the time, the Pennsylvania native was nearly accepting her wins for Favorite Female Pop/Rock Artist, Favorite Music Video (“Cardigan”) and Artist of the Year. “I’m actually rerecording all of my old music in the studio where we originally recorded it,” she defined. “It’s been amazing, and I can’t wait for you to hear it.”

Following the tip of her contract with Big Machine Records, Swift started the method of reimagining her catalog after Scooter Braun bought her grasp recordings. She publicly referred to as out the music supervisor, 41, a number of occasions in a years-long feud — and seemingly referenced their rigidity in a handful of Midnights tracks.

So far, the “Ivy” artist has dropped Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version). Eagle-eyed followers are satisfied Speak Now, which initially dropped in 2010, would be the subsequent album to get the Taylor’s Version therapy after choosing up on obvious Easter eggs in Swift’s new “Bejeweled” music video.

“I’ve spoken a lot about why I’m remaking my first six albums, but the way I’ve chosen to do this will hopefully help illuminate where I’m coming from,” she beforehand defined by way of Instagram in February 2021. “Artists should own their own work for so many reasons, but the most screamingly obvious one is that the artist is the only one who really knows that body of work.”