Demi Lovato is weighing in on the Taylor Swift/Scooter Braun controversy, coming to Braun’s defense after Swift wrote a blog post claiming Braun used his clients like Justin Bieber to bully her years ago. Lovato defended Braun, who recently became her manager, after another artist alleged he was “homophobic.”
Lovato, 26, commented on a since-deleted Instagram post made by artist and YouTube personality Todrick Hall, who worked with Braun and claimed he was “evil” and “homophobic.”
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“Hey boo, [I don’t know] you or anything and this isn’t hate, but making claims that someone is homophobic is really serious,” Lovato commented on Hall’s post. “Please don’t spread information that isn’t true because I can guarantee you Scooter isn’t. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community myself, he wouldn’t have signed me if he was. No hate just trying to clear that up.”
Along with the Instagram post, Hall shared a series of tweets where he claimed Braun previously threatened him.
Hall wrote on Twitter that Lovato “cannot compare [her] experience to [his], especially with someone [he] was with for six years and [she’s] only just signed with.”
Allison Scarinzi, a partner at Braun’s company SB Projects, replied to Hall’s accusations and claimed that the company fired Hall after he was allegedly caught “stealing from fans.”
“Scooter has been nothing but supportive of all disenfranchised groups. He is against dishonesty. Not those living in their truth,” Scarinzi wrote.
Lovato updated her Instagram Story and wrote, “I have dealt with bad people in this industry and Scooter is not one of them. He’s a good man. Personally, I’m grateful he came into my life when he did. Please stop ‘dragging’ people or bullying them. There’s enough hate in this world as it is.”
She continued, “Y’all can come after me all you want but I’m always gonna stay loyal to my team. I value loyalty more than most people in this world and if my name is gonna be brought into conversations I’m gonna stand up for myself and the ones on my team.”
Lovato signed with Braun’s management company and said she “couldn’t be happier.”
Lovato also “liked” Bieber’s Instagram post defending his manager, as well as one from Braun’s wife, Yael Cohen.
After Billboard confirmed that Braun’s Ithaca Holdings bought Big Machine Records (which includes Swift’s original master recordings), Swift claimed in a Tumblr blog post that she had been trying to obtain those masters herself “for years.” She wrote that she did not hear about the deal until she read the announcement.
“Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it,” Swift wrote.
Swift called the deal her “worst case scenario,” adding that “never in my worst nightmares” did she think Braun would be the one to buy Big Machine. She included a screenshot of an old Bieber Instagram post, which she claimed was an example of Braun’s bullying tactics. It showed Bieber FaceTiming Braun and Kanye West after Kim Kardashian leaked an illegally recorded phone conversation Swift had with West.
“This is Scooter Braun, bullying me on social media when I was at my lowest point. He’s about to own all the music I ever made,” Swift wrote on the image, which Bieber had captioned “Taylor swift what up.”
In a new Instagram post Sunday, Bieber told Swift that she was “crossing a line,” writing that Braun “has had [Swift’s] back since the days [she] graciously let [Bieber] open for [her].”
He accused her of writing the Tumblr post “to get sympathy” and that she knew her fans “would go and bully scooter.”
Swift began her career at Scott Borchetta’s Big Machine, but left for Universal Music Group’s Republic Records last year. Her new album, Lover, will be her first release on Republic.
Celebrities like Cara Delevingne and Halsey have defended Swift’s words, with Halsey sharing her own bad experience with the music industry heavyweight.
