"wb is joe" - this claim is disputed.
this is gonna be really long. don’t say i didn’t say i didn’t warn ya.
ok, before talking about wb, let’s talk about nils sjöberg because i’ve seen some people claiming that he was registered as swedish and other people asking if this is real. i just think it’s funny how some people keep saying that nils sjöberg was registered as a swede, but no one shows any evidence to prove it.
so let’s take a look of all these things, shall we?
taylor used a swedish name but that doesn’t necessarily mean it was registered with swedish citizenship. btw, the fact that she used a swedish name was really clever if you ask me because it diverted the attention from the songwriter’s identity and if it weren’t for calvin and all that drama, i bet the pseudonym would still be preserved today.
and why it was clever? well, sweden is the third largest music exporter in the world, behind only the usa and the united kingdom. some of the biggest bands we know are from there: abba, roxette, the cardigans. and there are several more current artists in pop and alternative taking their place in the sun, such as robyn, tove lo, lykke li, zara larsson, icona pop, etc. some of the biggest names as producers and composers in pop music are swedish, like max martin, which is the producer with the most #1 hits on billboard for the past 50 years. sweden is also well known for having a lot of edm artists. two of the main streaming platforms are also swedish: spotify and soundcloud. sweden literally shape the pop music. it’s a fact. but that’s beside the point….
so first things first: let’s go back to 2016 and look at the prints about nils sjöberg that have survived time
this is the ASCAP page showing the credits for the composition. however, it doesn’t show the citizenship. because ASCAP, as well as BMI for example (but there are others too), are a Performing Rights Organization (PRO). they collect public performance royalties as stipulated by the U.S. Copyright Act and distributes them. they also ensure that all locations playing music have a license to do so. so, basically they make sure you’re getting paid.
this is what the BMI page looked like right after taylor ditched the pseudonym (7/18/16):
observation: calvin was associated with ascap. taylor was associated with BMI. that’s why we can see it in both sites.
now, let’s see how it looks in 2020 on both sites:
if you look for it in ASCAP, you’ll get this:
and this is the current BMI page:
still no details about citizenship or any other details on either site as these sites are not the copyright database. THIS is the copyright office online database:
as we can see, the catalog only shows the updated version of the record, when she ditched the pseudonym. so, we don’t know how what it was like before, under nils sjöberg.
BUT what we do know is that when you register the copyright of a song, you don’t necessarily need to put along your real name, you can register it as anonymous, a pseudonym or a pen name, but you still need to give your citizenship or your domicile.
for example this is how shellback is registered in black space and in dancing with our hands tied.
registered as a pseudonym (he even gave his real name although he was not obligated to), but his citizenship is from sweden. max martin and oscar holter are also under swedish citizenship, even though they’re not under a pseudonym.
so let’s check on our one and only, william bowery:
as we can see, in public records william bowery is listed as an american citizen. and yes, joe could have dual citizenship etc, but for that he’d have to live in the united states for certain period (at least five years, and not have been absent in this period for more than six months) and it’s widely known and publicized out there that he still lives in london with his parents. and even if they were married (they’re not), it’s necessary that the marriage is already at least three years old and the applicant has not been out of the country for more than six months, in addition to being in the country for at least 18 months.
so if he’s not an american citizen and he’s supposed to be william, the public record should show him registered as a british citizen. that american citizenship doesn’t fit the story at all.
since the release of evermore, i’ve kept an eye on the copyright site to be able to check the new entries on wb there, however the site is apparently outdated and only the betty and exile records appear under “william bowery”. and before you all ask me, there is nothing registered under joe’s name either. there is also no new entry for evermore in taylor’s name, not even jack, justin or aaron. is really outdated. the reason? idk, probably with the pandemic it’s taking longer to update the database -which is totally understandable-, for example, i can’t find some other new realeses too, like wonder by shawn mendes or plastic hearts by miley.
anyway, so i checked BMI and william bowery appears as a songwriter there, but remember that BMI is just an organization that takes care of the royalties, licensing etc, so it doesn’t show details of the authorship. but the credits appear along with betty and exile, which means that it’s the same william from folklore and not another with the same name. and if it’s the same from folklore, it means that his citizenship is the same too: american — as we already saw in the copyright register print up there.
here’s some prints: 1) all songs listed under “william bowery” 2) champagne problems, as an example from evermore 2) exile, as an example from folklore
the only site that mentions joe’s name as a songwriter, is genius. however, just like wikipedia, anyone can edit information on genius. so this claim is literally disputed by official sources.
nils sjöberg being registered as swedish doesn’t make sense. the pseudonym was just ditched. and last time i checked, taylor was not swedish. then, according to copyright rules, nils would have been registered as an american. it’s mathematics luv.
as far as i know, lying and giving false information on a copyright record (or any other official document) is illegal. therefore, unless you believe that taylor would really commit some kind of felony, the only explanation that exists here is: william is not joe alwyn.
whoever “william bowery” is, is an american.
and why would it be necessary to keep the pseudonym “william bowery” in evermore when supposedly his true identity had already been revealed before evermore was even released? what is so controversial about joe alwyn, a white boy, that he’d need to hide? make it make sense.
@theprologues @iwanthermidnightz i’m tagging you guys because i know you get a lot of asks about this, so i hope this helps in some way :)
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