Why Taylor Swift's Re-Released Albums Weren't Nominated For Grammys

Taylor Swift is a perennial favourite at the Grammy Awards. She’s been nominated an impressive 42 times and has already taken home 11 trophies. At this point, we expect to see her pop up year in and year out to snag more awards. At last year’s show, she won album of the year for “Folklore,” her surprise drop in the middle of the COVID pandemic that certainly perked up her fans. At this year’s show, her other surprise drop, “Evermore,” is nominated for album of the year. But what fans are wondering is why her re-released albums didn’t score any nominations.

Swift has slowly been releasing her old music in the past couple years after losing her masters to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings. To take control of her music, she decided to go into her back catalogue and re-record her early albums so she could own the masters of her re-recorded versions. So far she’s released “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and “Red (Taylor’s Version).” The question is whether or not these new releases are eligible to be nominated for Grammys, so let’s break it down.

Why Wasn’t “Red (Taylor’s Version)” Nominated at the 2022 Grammys?

First of all, when “Red” was originally released in October 2012, it earned Swift a Grammy nomination for album of the year (though it didn’t win). The re-release dropped in November 2021, which actually puts it outside the eligibility period for this year’s Grammys. September’s cutoff means “Red (Taylor’s Version)” will be eligible for a nomination next year instead.

Why Wasn’t “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” Nominated at the 2022 Grammys?

“Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” is a bit different, though. When “Fearless” was originally released in 2008, it had a huge run at the Grammys, earning Swift eight nominations. She took home four trophies that year, including album of the year. Though “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” was released last year in the eligibility period for this year’s Grammys, Swift and her label chose not to submit it for consideration.

In a statement provided to Billboard, Republic Records said, “After careful consideration, Taylor Swift will not be submitting Fearless (Taylor’s Version) in any category at this year’s upcoming Grammy and CMA Awards. Fearless has already won four Grammys including album of the year, as well as the CMA Award for album of the year in 2009/2010, and remains the most awarded country album of all time.”

We’ll have to wait until next year’s nominations are announced to find out if Swift is submitting any of her other re-released albums for award consideration, but we respect her wanting to give other artists a chance to win knowing she’s already bagged awards for these albums when they were first released.