Did Taylor Swift disrespect Céline Dion at the 2024 Grammys? We investigated the incident
Did Taylor Swift blank Céline Dion at the 2024 Grammys? Let’s find out why some fans have criticised Swift for seemingly disrespecting the iconic 55-year-old singer when accepting the award for Album Of The Year.
After footage of the ‘My Heart Will Go On’ singer handing Swift the Album Of The Year award went viral, some netizens pointed out that the Midnights winner didn’t acknowledge Dion with a greeting or eye contact, instead quickly turning around to celebrate the moment with her collaborators.
Taylor Swift just took the album of the year trophy from Celine Dion without batting an eye and/or acknowledging that a legendary 🐐 was handing her the award. So cringey for my soul 🫠 pic.twitter.com/J7LggDVQD8
— eazy e (@estefs) February 5, 2024
#Grammys
— Rachel. (@_loveRachel_) February 5, 2024
*Taylor Swift & her friends running around on that stage for her award*
Celine Dion:pic.twitter.com/fjV5H5XH6S
the legendary CELINE DION making her first appearance in years amidst her health battle just to be paid dust by taylor swift pic.twitter.com/jN6PJPZOWo
— daniele (@dontdoitdani) February 5, 2024
Dion is widely considered one of the greatest vocalists and pop artists in recent history. Moreover, her surprise appearance at the 2024 Grammys was incredibly emotional due to the singer having recently announced that she’d been diagnosed with stiff person syndrome, a rare autoimmune disease that most commonly causes muscle stiffness and painful spasms.
Therefore, the possibility that Swift had knowingly ignored Dion’s presence sat badly with a lot of netizens:
Taylor Swift ignoring very sick legend Celine Dion during the Grammys while accepting Album of the Year. Wow. Classless personified. pic.twitter.com/WgO7sjdT7L
— Nats Fan Burner (@NatsBurner) February 5, 2024
I see yall are trying to get Taylor Swift outta here after the Celine Dion disrespect, and I'm all here for it pic.twitter.com/ZRZlEWI3Vx
— JG (@UTxJGTheDon) February 5, 2024
She’s battling for her life. Does what is necessary to present this award. Isn’t acknowledged by the winner Taylor swift. Huge disrespect. Taylor really thinks she’s better than everyone with that action alone. She lost respect by disrespecting Celine Dion https://t.co/gg00W4BYpd pic.twitter.com/8ykowPQUI2
— WW (@wildenspeaker) February 5, 2024
Taylor Swift fully ignored Celine Dion…
— ☆La 🤍 (@Ayah2156) February 6, 2024
Meanwhile, Miley Cyrus. https://t.co/WfJgH7YAV0
Page Six reported that an insider source noted that Céline was able to shake the incident off: “I don’t think Céline cared and they talked backstage afterwards,” the source said. “But Céline was just gracious and happy to be there,” the insider added, “Of course, the right thing would have been for Taylor to acknowledge her like Adele did years ago.”
When Dion presented the award for Song of the Year to Adele in 2017, for the ballad ‘Hello’, Adele approached the iconic legend with the utmost respect and humility. Adele even made an “I’m not worthy” hand motion to the singer and hugged her before taking her trophy.
Anyway, Adele and Céline Dion are just superior pic.twitter.com/D8BbJzcGHq
— Miguel 🌠 (@elasticdijon) February 5, 2024
Adele “bending the knee” to Celine Dion at the 2017 #GRAMMYS pic.twitter.com/sc9Lkmi2x9
— THE ADELE MUSEUM | 🏆 (@AdeleMuseum) February 5, 2024
Adele has frequently used the Grammy stage as a platform to endorse and celebrate other artists. When she won the award for Album Of The Year that same night, she infamously used her speech to celebrate Beyoncé’s album Lemonade.
“I can’t possibly accept this award. And I’m very humbled, and I’m very grateful and gracious, but my artist of my life is Beyoncé,” Adele stated. “This album was so monumental, and so well-thought-out and so beautiful and soul-bearing… and all us artists here, we f*cking adore you,” the singer continued.
The heartfelt acknowledgement had the crowd roaring and even brought Beyoncé to tears as she mouthed “I love you” to Adele.
adele making it clear that beyoncé deserved the grammy will forever be iconic😭😭😭pic.twitter.com/ucKen7ojO8 https://t.co/nXreKKotO8
— 𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗻𝘆🫧💚 (@beyoncegarden) February 4, 2024
Beyoncé, in turn, has also infamously used her stage time to endorse Swift—specifically after Kanye West snubbed her at the 2009 Video Music Awards. After West rudely interrupted Swift’s acceptance speech, in one of the most talked about pop culture moments of all time, Beyoncé memorably invited Swift onstage.
In an industry that is frequently criticised for being isolating and overly competitive, acceptance speeches are not just a moment to reflect on one’s own accomplishments, but also to shout out the artists who paved the way, or aren’t taking trophies home.
Taylor Swift and Celine Dion backstage at the Grammys pic.twitter.com/SU3JabAi75
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) February 5, 2024
Swift still found a way to acknowledge Dion by taking a picture with the singer backstage. There is also a theory spreading online that the artist might have been told not to touch Dion, due to her illness.
“I’m willing to bet that Taylor was told not to touch Céline Dion. Stiff person syndrome can be triggered by noise, stress, and touch,” one user noted.
Another commented: “Stop this stupid narrative. Taylor hung out with Céline afterwards. Céline also has a painful neurological disease which makes touch very painful.” A third fan wrote: “Céline Dion has a medical condition—Taylor couldn’t touch her. Céline backed away before Taylor could have hugged her.”
Either way, perhaps Swift was so overjoyed to be the first person in history to win this particular award four times that she wanted to shout out her team first, before acknowledging the legendary artist in a calmer setting behind the stage? Just a theory.
