When her 'The View' co-host explains the reason why the pop superstar doesn't live up to the honor, the 'Sister Act' actress insists that the singer's 'gravitas is different.'
- Dec 8, 2023
AceShowbiz - Whoopi Goldberg and Sunny Hostin cannot agree on whether or not Taylor Swift deserved to be chosen as TIME's Person of the Year. After the magazine announced the winner of the title, "The View" co-hosts weighed in on it in the Thursday, December 7 episode of the show.
Sunny, for her part, doesn't see Taylor fit the title. While she admitted that the Grammy winner is an "incredible performer and a humanist, philanthropist, songwriter," she believes there were other nominees who lived up to the honor's roots.
"The other people that were up for this award were the Hollywood strikers, the Trump prosecutors," Sunny said. "The Trump prosecutors may be able to save our democracy." She continued, "They also had a couple of other people that seemed to me, if the motto for the magazine is the person or persons who most affected the news in our lives..."
But Whoopi disagreed with Sunny. "You have - we have - sat at this table and talked about this girl and everything she's done," the Emmy-winning host pushed back. Sunny then stressed that she didn't intend to take "anything away" from Taylor with her comment.
The "Sister Act" actress later pointed out, "Her gravitas is different," before praising Taylor's impact on pop culture and society with her successful "Eras Tour". Alyssa Farah Griffin chimed in, highlighting a "phenomenon and a power" to Taylor's contributions. She added, "She has the ability to make a major impact for good in this country, and she always uses it when she has the opportunity."
In naming Taylor as its Person of the Year, TIME said on Wednesday, "Swift's accomplishments as an artist-culturally, critically, and commercially-are so legion that to recount them seems almost beside the point."
"This was the year she perfected her craft-not just with her music, but in her position as the master storyteller of the modern era," the magazine continued. "The world, in turn, watched, clicked, cried, danced, sang along, swooned, caravaned to stadiums and movie theaters, let her work soundtrack their lives. For Swift, it's a peak."
