Some Taylor Swift fans know no bounds. As if leaving an array of Post-It notes on the singer's Tribeca apartment door wasn't enough, New York-based Swifties have taken their devotion to the reigning queen of the city to new heights: If you refuse to play "Bad Blood" on repeat, they're guaranteed to revolt.
On Sunday evening, Denyse Santoro, owner of East Village wine bar and restaurant Ballarò, was hosting a group of 15 when they demanded that the eatery exclusively play Taylor Swift music. Santoro played two of the singer's songs, but according to her account on Ballarò's Facebook page, that's when things got ugly:
They were screaming “BOO, YOU SUCK!” at me and my wait staff because Taylor Swift wasn’t playing on our sound system...after the two songs ended and the playlist moved on to other artists, they started complaining even more and it escalated. They started screaming that the songs I played weren’t the right one and I was told that, “this place is shit, the music and the people here suck.” I was then told to, "Go back to your country with that fucking immigrant face."
Santoro decided to kick the crew out of the space when more insanity ensued. According to the bar owner, not only had they not paid their $500 tab, but one woman threatened "that she was going to make a viral video [of the incident] so no one would come to Ballarò anymore." Plus, when Santoro returned to her restaurant Monday morning, the words “WE DO NOT PLAY TAYLOR SWIFT HERE YOU C*NTS GRAZIE" were scribbled in chalk on the sidewalk in front of the bar.
Now, we can't imagine Swift supporting this type of behavior (just a few days earlier, an out-of-control fan grabbed her leg while she was performing in Canada, and she brushed it off like a champ), especially when it seems like Santoro is the kind of person who embraces the whole "Welcome to New York" vibe the pop singer holds so dear.
"My mission is to make everyone who enters through the front door feel like they are at home, because sometimes New York hardens even the best of us and we forget the true values in life: community and peace," Santoro wrote on Facebook. "I can’t allow groups of belligerent drunk people to insult my bar, myself or my staff. This place is my heart and soul, and I need to protect that."
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