Will the real Nils Sjöberg please stand up? A Swedish man with that name was shocked to find that Taylor Swift had used his moniker as a pseudonym to pen her ex-boyfriend Calvin Harris’ hit song, “This Is What You Came For.” The other problem? There’s more than one actual Nils Sjöberg out there!
“I haven’t been contacted by Taylor’s reps, and that’s totally OK,” one of the real Nils Sjöbergs told Page Six. “There are a couple of us here in Sweden with this name, even though I haven’t met any in person yet.”
This particular Sjöberg, 32, lives in Gothenburg, Sweden, and works as a communications manager for the Swedish Exhibition & Congress Center and Gothia Towers, according to his Twitter bio.
“I think Calvin Harris and Taylor Swift have made an awesome song,” he told Page Six of the single. “The pseudo is hilarious.”
Sjöberg runs a Tumblr called “Nils’ First World Problems,” where he illustrates various inconveniences that readers submit. Back on June 6, he drew a cartoon of the “Wildest Dreams” singer and wrote, “@taylorswift uses my name (Nils Sjöberg) as an alias when she produce[s] pop songs (it’s true, google it!), one of my very own first world problems.”
It appears that Sjöberg caught on to Swift’s pseudonym early. Rumors have swirled since the April release of “This Is What You Came For” that the “Shake It Off” songstress appeared on Harris’ hit, which he recorded with Rihanna. However, the pop superstar’s rep only confirmed on Wednesday, July 13, that Swift used the alias for her writing credit on Harris’ song.
In just the first few hours after her rep’s confirmation, the real Sjöberg saw an “explosion in tweets and heavy traffic to my blog,” and “thousands more visitors on my Tumblr,” he told Page Six.
“Taylor Swift’s fans believe I am @taylorswift13“, an unexpected #firstworldproblem #taylorswift #swiftie https://t.co/Xzkl9lKm14
— Nils Sjöberg (@nilsjoberg) June 26, 2016
The drama escalated when Harris took to Twitter to weigh in on Swift’s contribution to his smash hit. He started off by complimenting his ex’s songwriting talent, but the tweets quickly turned bitter.
“And she sings on a little bit of it too,” the Grammy-nominated DJ tweeted. “Amazing lyric writer and she smashed it as usual.”
“I wrote the music, produced the song, arranged it and cut the vocals though. And initially she wanted it kept secret, hence the pseudonym,” he added in another tweet. “Hurtful to me at this point that her and her team would go so far out of their way to try and make ME look bad at this stage though,” he wrote of stories that reported Swift was hurt that Harris didn’t reveal the collaboration during a radio interview.
“I figure if you’re happy in your new relationship you should focus on that instead of trying to tear your ex bf down for something to do,” he continued of her parading her new romance with Tom Hiddleston. “I know you’re off tour and you need someone new to try and bury like Katy [Perry] ETC but I’m not that guy, sorry. I won’t allow it. Please focus on the positive aspects of YOUR life because you’ve earned a great one. God bless everyone have a beautiful day.”
The “Bad Blood” singer — who has worked with famed Swedish producer Max Martin on several of her songs — has yet to reveal exactly why she chose the name Sjöberg or responded to Harris’ tweets. Shortly after his rant, she was spotted smiling as she shopped on Australia’s Gold Coast on Thursday, July 14.
