Fall Out Boy mentions ‘Kanye West and Taylor Swift’ while performing Billy Joel’s ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ at VMAs 2023

Fall Out Boy mentioned the words “Kanye West and Taylor Swift” as part of the lyrics while performing their updated version of Billy Joel’s classic hit ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ at the VMAs on Tuesday.

Here is the video of the performance:

Taylor Swift was in attendance at VMAs this year. Her reaction to her reference in the song was unclear as the camera failed top pan to her face during the song. The awards night was not attended by Kanye West.

Swift and West have shared bad blood over the years starting at the 2009 MTV VMAs when the rapper ambushed Swift’s acceptance speech for Video of the Year. He apologized for his behavior later.

Their relationship got worse following the rapper’s February 2016 release of “Famous” off his The Life of Pablo album. Later, West’s ex-wife Kim Kardashian claimed that Swift knew of West’s plans to release the track. The reality star leaked a phone call between West and Swift discussing the song before its release.

The rock group released the song earlier this summer, writing new lyrics for Joel’s iconic hit song, which included references to the beef between Taylor Swift and Kanye West. It also covers references to the years from 1989 to 2023, including Iron Man, MIchael Phelps, Colin Kaepernick, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, MySpace and the deaths of George Floyd, Prince and Queen Elizabeth, among other topics. It also covered significant events that happened from the years 1949 to 1989, including everything from the Cold War to the cola wars and Joseph Stalin to John F. Kennedy.

“I listen to Billy Joel’s [song] and so many of the things in it are either massive moments or just kind of shoulder shrugs within history now,” bassist Pete Wentz previously told The New York Times of the song. “It’s interesting to see what he referenced from the ’50s and ’60s and what he didn’t. And in some ways it’s just etchings inside of a cave — documentation that we existed and these things happened, both triumphant and terrible. We made this song for ourselves and then we hoped our fans would have fun with it.”