Swift: I thought I was being called out. I missed the point, I misunderstood, then misspoke. I’m sorry, Nicki.

AFP/New York

Pop superstar Taylor Swift apologised yesterday to rapper Nicki Minaj after striking a rare false note in an online row over the MTV Video Music Awards nominations.
Minaj had charged that her Anaconda was passed over for Video of the Year due to bias against African American women, with the music industry preferring “very slim” women.
The very slim Swift, who received the most nominations for the August 30 awards, responded to Minaj that “I’ve done nothing but love and support you” and invited her to share the stage if she wins for her video Bad Blood.
“It’s unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot,” Swift, a self-identified feminist, wrote on Twitter.
Nearly two days later and facing criticism, Swift – who has usually managed to avoid controversy in her smooth-sailing career – backtracked.
“I thought I was being called out. I missed the point, I misunderstood, then misspoke. I’m sorry, Nicki,” Swift tweeted.
Minaj had said she was bewildered by Swift’s original response and that she instead wished that Swift had spoken out on portrayals of African American women.
She indicated yesterday that any “bad blood” was over, tweeting in response to the apology: “That means so much Taylor, thank you.”
The controversy brought an unexpected intervention on Wednesday from another singing star, Katy Perry, who suggested that Swift was using the “pit woman against each other argument” while herself putting down another woman, Minaj.
Perry’s tweet to her nearly 73mn followers marked a rare moment that the long-rumoured tension between two of the era’s top pop singers has come into the open.
Perry – who memorably sang “You’re gonna hear me roar” – wrote a pointed criticism of Swift, without using her name: “Finding it ironic to parade the ‘pit women against other women’ argument about as one unmeasurably capitalises on the takedown of a woman.”
Swift was nominated for Video of the Year for Bad Blood, which depicts her as an action hero.
Swift has said that she wrote the song – with the lines “Now we got problems / And I don’t think we can solve them” – about another pop star whom she accused of undercutting her by hiring people who had been working for her.
While Swift did not name her villain, she was widely believed to be referring to Perry.