Overview

#WeLoveMe vs. #Mayochella refers to the disagreement between Beyonce fans and Taylor Swift fans over the accusation that Taylor Swift copied aspects of Beyonce's Coachella performance at the 2019 Billboard Music Awards.

Background

On April 14th, 2018, Beyoncé headlined Coachella. The performance featured a full marching band and gained numerous glowing reviews. On May 6th, Youtuber iampapito21 upload a video of the performance which gained over 1.6 million views and 11,000 likes in a year (shown below, left). A backstage look into her performance and preparation, "Homecoming" deputed on Netflix in April 2019. On May 1st, 2019, Taylor Swift performed her new single "ME!" at the Billboard Music awards. The performance was uploaded to YouTube that day and gained over 12 million views and 19,000 likes in four days (shown below, right).

Notable Developments

On May 1st, 2019, Twitter users took notice of the similarities between the performances.@NathanMackinnon^[3] tweeted, "Beyonce: headlines Coachella with an all black drum line and band. Taylor Swift: opens #BBMAs with a mostly white drum line playing off beat. Can't wait for everyone to praise her originality🙃" (shown below, left). The tweet gained over 294 likes and 60 retweets in four weeks. The next day, fans debated the similarities and attached the hashtags #mayochella to mock Swift's performance and #WeLoveMe to support Swift. Twitter user @AsimantoMirmigi^[2] gave one of many examples of how Beyonce wasn't the first to use a marching band (shown below, right).

The day after Swift's performance, @sijeyXIII^[4] defended her in a tweet saying, "#WeLoveME Beyhives: bEyONcE InVENtED mARchInG baNDs! Everyone: " (shown below, left). Beyonce fans continued to voice their shock. Twitter user @courtenlow^[1] "What in the Melania copying Michelle’s speech is this. #Mayochella" (shown below, right). The tweet garnered 1,300 retweets and 5,920 likes in three days.

That same day, DESUS & MERO on SHOWTIME shared a clip of their show in which they comment on the similarities (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References