Taylor Swift ‘Biggest Fan’ Contest Cancelled After 39-Year-Old Man Wins

Hasn’t Taylor Swift learnt anything from the Internet by now? The Grammy-winning artist may be really talented and popular, but she can’t win the Internet. Ever. A U.S. radio station cancelled its Taylor Swift’s Biggest Fan contest after a 39-year-old man won.

Kiss108 had launched a meet-and-greet contest with the 23-year-old country-turned-pop singer. The winner would be determined by supporter votes online. Taylor’s fanbase is largely composed of young children and teen girls, so just imagine what a sweet photo op Taylor and the winner would make.

But Taylor and Kiss108 forgot one thing: this is the Internet, where sweet is often misplaced.

What could have been a dream come true for many tweens who entered the contest had quickly become a major disappointment when a grown man named Charles Z was leading the voting poll.

Who’s Charles, you ask? Well, Charles is a bearded man who claimed that he’s Taylor’s biggest fan.

“I’m a 39-year-old man and I love Taylor so much and don’t care that both adults and children mock me for it,” he wrote in his entry.

And thanks to the trolls at Reddit and 4Chan Web sites who kept on voting for Charles, he was effectively killing little girls’ hopes and dreams by getting the most votes.

“My creepy 39-year-old friend named Charles would like to crush all those girls’ dreams (and then sniff Taylor Swift’s hair cos he’s into that) by winning this instead... Help him crush the dreams of these girls and give him a chance to make a complete ass of himself by blatantly just sniffing her hair with the cameras rolling,” someone apparently posted on behalf of Charles on 4Chan.

Kiss108 then put a stop to the trolling, and cancelled the contest altogether.

“Disappointingly, we have determined that the integrity of the ‘Taylor Swift’s Biggest Fan’ contest has been compromised. In accordance with our contest rules, effective immediately, the contest has been terminated. We apologise to all of our loyal listeners who have participated,” a message on its Web site reads.

It doesn’t end there, though. It might seem like a lost cause, but perhaps Internet trolls still think it’s fun to start a petition to “give justice to Charles.”

“A man called ‘Charles z’ won this vote and proved he was her biggest fan, and was then ecstatic that he was actually going to meet his idol. He then found out that the competition had been cancelled, for the reason that he wasn’t the expected demographic to win,” a petition on Change.org reads.

“Justice4Charles aims to allow Charles to meet Taylor and give him justice. A year ago, Taylor Swift was due to perform at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The contest was also declared void. We cannot let this continue so please sign this petition, make a difference to this innocent man’s life and give justice to Charles. #Justice4Charles”

Charles, meanwhile, told GQ magazine that he wasn’t trolling when he entered the contest and that he was really a fan of the young singer.

“I thought it would be fun [to meet Taylor]. Seriously. That’s it,” he told the magazine. And it was fun. At one point the leaderboard was 50 happy 13-year-old girls, then there’s a picture of me, hungover, in my bathroom. That’s good stuff.”

He admitted, though, that he has never been to any of Taylor’s shows.

“I’ve never been to a show, but I think she’s great. Her music is fun. We’ve all had our hearts broken, and she makes sadness into dance songs. She seems like a sweetheart.”

He reiterated, though, that contrary to what was written on 4Chan, he didn’t want to smell Taylor’s hair.

“But I’m not going to lie, if I get to meet her, I may lean in for a whiff, I’d be crazy not to at this point. The people of the Internet demand it, and who am I to cheat them.”

As mentioned by the petition starter on Change.org, this isn’t the first time Taylor and her handlers had cancelled an online contest.

In 2012, sponsors Papa John’s and Chegg held a contest on Facebook for a school to win $10,000 for their music department and a performance from the singer. As customary, the winner would be determined by the number of online votes they would get. 4Chan and Reddit members also helped a school lead the votes. Unfortunately, they made the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Massachusetts win.

The school’s principal Jeremiah Ford told Boston.com that although he didn’t care for the mean-spirited people who voted for them, he’d be happy if the school won the contest.

Taylor and the sponsors still disqualified them because of the way they won the votes, though.

But even if the trolls were “mean-spirited,” Taylor wasn’t. She donated $10,000 of her own money to the school. Papa John’s and Chegg, as well as CoverGirl and American Greetings, also donated $10,000 each. And apart from the $50,000 total, every student from Horace will also get tickets to the star’s show the next time she performs near their city.