Boygenius Opens Up About Taylor Swift’s ‘Tortured Poets’ Announcement at Grammys & Band’s Hiatus
Written by djfrosty on February 9, 2024
From Taylor Swift‘s surprise album announcement to the three golden gramophones Boygenius took home Sunday (Feb. 4), Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus had a lot to debrief about after the 2024 Grammys.
In a post-awards interview with Vanity Fair, the bandmates — who confirmed plans to go on hiatus during a Feb. 1 show — revealed they were just as surprised as everyone else at Crypto.com Arena to hear Swift announce her new LP, The Tortured Poets Department, while accepting best pop vocal during the ceremony. “I was like, ‘No way. Is this happening?’” Dacus recalled.
“She keeps that s–t Fort Knox,” added Baker.
The “Anti-Hero” singer also won album of the year for Midnights, while Boygenius took home best rock performance and best rock song for “Not Strong Enough,” and best alternative music album for The Record. Individually, Bridgers was the night’s most awarded artist, having also snagged best pop duo/group for her “Ghost in the Machine” duet with SZA.
In a sweet clip from right after the show wrapped, Swift burst into the press room to excitedly congratulate Baker, Bridgers and Dacus before snapping photos with the group.
In the new interview, the trio also addressed its recent hiatus announcement, confirming all is well between the members, even after fans noticed that Bridgers and Dacus both wiped their Instagram accounts. “We are meeting up for dinner after this call,” said the “Night Shift” singer. “Everyone can be rest assured that we still love each other.”
“I think we all want a little break,” added the “Motion Sickness” musician. “I can’t function if I do anything in 2024 that is public.”
Bridgers had also touched on the hiatus while doing press backstage at the Grammys, saying, “This is funny because I guess we just didn’t tell anybody, but we told each other at the beginning of this project that it would have a finite date, like a finite amount of time devoted to it.”
“We completed that time, and now we walk into the sunset,” she added.
During that same backstage interview, the “Kyoto” singer also blasted former Recording Academy president Neil Portnow, telling him to “rot in piss” for his past comments about female musicians. To Vanity Fair, Bridgers elaborated on her decision to call out the executive.
“Lana [Del Rey] should have won a long time ago,” she said. “Mitski should be acknowledged in any f–king way. There’s countless people. For [Portnow] to say that women aren’t working hard enough to get these awards is the stupidest s–t ever. I was like, ‘Why not say it here where everybody knows who this guy is?’”