Gayle Reveals the Advice Taylor Swift Gave Her on Dealing With ‘ABCDEFU’ Backlash
Music
“She’s like, ‘Baby child. Come on. What controversy could you have had for the five minutes you’ve been making music?'” the 18-year-old recalled.
Taylor Swift and Gayle are seen during the MTV Europe Music Awards 2022 held at PSD Bank Dome on Nov. 13, 2022 in Duesseldorf, Germany.
Kate Green/MTV/GI for MTV
Gayle used to have trouble dealing with hate, but recently, she’s learned how to shake it off. That’s thanks to some advice given to her by idol-turned-confidante Taylor Swift, whom the 18-year-old Nashville musician credits with helping her put backlash into perspective when it comes to her success or her polarizing smash hit “abcdefu.”
Gayle revealed in an interview with Teen Vogue published Thursday (April 27) that, in touring with Swift and sitting next to her at award shows, she has gleaned some well-earned wisdom from the 33-year-old pop star about tuning out negativity. “She’s like, ‘Baby child. Come on. What controversy could you have had for the five minutes you’ve been making music?’” Gayle recalled Swift telling her.
“And that’s true,” the “Everybody Hates Me” singer continued. “That’s fair. It was really, really nice for her to say, when I’ve told her my biggest, deepest worries, she’s like, ‘You’re right. And it’s fine.’”
Gayle’s career skyrocketed after her angsty breakup chart-topper blew up on TikTok in 2021. There was already some people who openly scorned the trendiness and success of “abcdefu” before the 2023 Grammy nominations were announced last year, but when Gayle earned a nod for song of the year alongside Swift’s “All Too Well (10 Minute Version),” her critics got even louder. (Both she and Swift lost the category to Bonnie Raitt’s “Just Like That.”)
According to Teen Vogue, though, Swift’s advice was simple, that Gayle had to make the music she wanted and grow as a musician, and learn how to deal with people’s responses.
“[I had to decide] if I won’t take advice from you, I won’t take criticism from you,” Gayle added. “I can’t not give it all I got just because I’m scared of the possibility of people not liking it. … My music, at the very least, is supposed to make you feel something. If it’s hatred, you’re still feeling something. I’m still winning a little bit. I’ll take it.”
The young star also recounted the story of how Swift asked her to be one of the Eras Tour openers, an invitation that essentially went down the very first time Gayle met her hero at the Nashville Songwriter Association International awards ceremony last year. “She was like, ‘Oh my God, are you touring? Do you tour?’ I’m like, ‘Oh my God. Yeah, I do tour,’” she said.
“She’s like, ‘Oh my God, are you touring next year?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I am.’ She’s like, “That’s amazing. Do you open up for people?’ I don’t know why my dumb a– said this, but I was like, ‘I open up for people who ask me to open up for them.’ She was like, ‘I’ll call you.’ I was like, oh my God, I’m going to die.”
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