Just after winning Female Artist of the Year at the iHeartRadio Music Awards, Taylor Swift dropped a new music video for “Delicate,” a track from her latest album, “Reputation.”
Like much of the album, the song hones in on Swift’s public perception over the past year or so.
The video opens with a vacant-looking Swift on the red carpet, dressed in a flapper-inspired sapphire gown and mobbed by reporters and photographers.
She escapes to her dressing room, where the songstress makes funny faces at herself in the mirror. She’s interrupted by a group of women, and when she turns back to the mirror, she realizes she can’t see her reflection anymore.
This realization sets off a string of impromptu “La La Land”-esque dance moves — some of which are painfully awkward to watch.
About a minute and a half in, things get crazy: The singer whips off the bottom of her gown, revealing a sassy, shorter version of her fringy frock.
The weird dance moves and the dramatic disrobing aren’t even the most buzzed-about bits of the video, though. Critics say Swift’s video is a ripoff of Spike Jonze’s 2016 Kenzo commercial (starring “The Leftovers” actress Margaret Qualley).
“Anybody else notice that the @taylorswift13 ‘Delicate’ music video ripped off Spike Jonze’s Kenzo video? It’s almost beat-for-beat, just with worse dancing,” one whistleblower tweets.
“Taylor Swift’s ‘Delicate’ video is a poor man’s version of Spike Jonze’s ad for Kenzo,” tweets another.
Naturally, Swift’s die-hard fans couldn’t care less about the Kenzo controversy.
“@taylorswift13 dancing in a storm in her best dress because she’s fearless and it doesn’t get better than this in the ‘Delicate’ video is everything,” tweets a loyalist.