On January 24, a hearing was held to resolve drama surrounding the issues in purchasing Taylor Swift concert tickets from Ticketmaster. Last November, many fans were unable to purchase tickets to Taylor’s concert due to malfunctions with the Ticketmaster website. During the hearing, many Senators quoted Taylor herself in their arguments, making for an entertaining hearing.

Ticketmaster is owned by a larger company,  Live Nation Entertainment, whose top executive, Joe Berchtold, was questioned on problems with the ticket sale and other allegations against the company. Berchtold blamed the troubles on online bots that purchased tickets. A few senators responded and claimed that Ticketmaster should have a program in place to keep these bots out.

While many important topics were discussed at the hearing,  the senator’s sense of humor stole the show. U.S. Senator Mark Lee quoted Taylor’s new song ‘Karma’ by saying, “Karma’s a relaxing thought, aren’t you envious for you it’s not.”

A 9th grader at La Jolla, Stella Newcomer, stated: “I found it very funny how they kept using song quotes.” U.S Sen Richard Blumenthal told Joe Berchtold to “Look in the Mirror and say ‘I’m the problem, it’s me,’” which is a reference to Taylor’s song ‘Anti-hero.’ 

In the latter part of the hearing, potential solutions were discussed. One Senator, U.S. Sen John Kenndy, suggested making the tickets “non-transferable,” so scalpers don’t feel the need to buy tons of tickets. Although a clear solution wasn’t reached, the hearing was enjoyed by Taylor fans all over. 9th grader Hayden Uhrig claimed: “I watched the hearing, and I thought the song quotes made it funny.”