15 Famous Shady Moments We Can't Get Over

Though Hollywood seems like such a sunny place, it's actually covered in excessive amounts of shade. “Throwing shade” is an expression that comes from African-American and Latino communities, and basically refers to insulting someone without actually, directly insulting them. It might be a compliment said with a condescending tone or an eye roll-as long as you're implying an insult without explicitly saying it, you're throwing shade. There are a million ways to do this, and celebrities have them all down! Shade is necessary when you're a star, because straight-up attacking someone will lose you lots of fans, and drive your PR people insane. The shadiest moments of Hollywood usually involve famous people making indirect comments that we know are SO aimed at another famous person, or compliments that are obviously slurs in disguise. It's been a while in some cases, but we still can't get over these shady moments!

15 Mariah Carey Shades J.Lo

There's been tension brewing between Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez for a while. We're not sure exactly where this started, but it's clear that the ladies aren't friendly. Mariah hasn't outwardly said that she doesn't like Jen, but she's definitely thrown some shade by pretending that she didn't know who the singer was. On more than one occasion, Mariah stated that she didn't know Jennifer, implying that she'd never heard of her. Not only was this strange because she's a huge star, but Jennifer went on to confirm that she had met Mariah many times. When asked about it, J.Lo said that Mimi must be “forgetful”. No nastiness was exchanged, but you could cut the tension with a knife! The relationship between these two has been shady ever since, with Jen texting during one of Mariah's performances and Mariah saying she'd be hesitant to do a song with J.Lo because she didn't “know how that would sound.”

14 Nicki Minaj Shades Iggy Azalea

Nicki Minaj definitely isn't afraid of outright confrontation. If the problem is serious enough, Nicki will call anyone out, anywhere, anytime. But that doesn't mean she's a stranger to being shady! When Nicki won the BET award for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist, she made what seemed like a harmless speech about writing her own music. “What I want the world to know about Nicki Minaj, is when you hear Nicki Minaj spit, Nicki Minaj wrote it,” she said as she accepted the award, before “sipping tea” with her hand. Totally innocent, right? Wrong! Many speculate that Nicki was actually taking a dig at fellow rap artist Iggy Azalea who happened to be nominated in the same category that night, and who reportedly does not write her own raps. To make the comment even more shady and relentless, Nicki said, “No shade,” after the dig. That's about as shady as it gets!

13 Demi Lovato Shades Selena Gomez

We all know that Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez go way back. Both appearing on Barney and Friends together as children, these guys were best friends for a very long time. However, when most people grow up, their friendships can change when new people come into the picture, and these stars are no different. Once she broke away from her Disney Channel persona, Selena became tight with Taylor Swift and her huge squad. The pair are still close, from what we can see. Now, old bud Demi didn't outwardly state that this bothered her, but she definitely implied it! One day when she was signing autographs, one fan asked her, “How's Selena?” Demi lost some of her cool and responded with, “Ask Taylor.” Yikes! For a while there, things were a little rocky between the old BFFE. But recently, the two have been spotted together and seem to have patched things up!

12 Lady Gaga Shades Katy Perry

The relationship between Katy Perry and Lady Gaga has never been too friendly. When Gaga came out with “Judas” in 2011, Katy tweeted, “Using blasphemy as entertainment is as cheap as a comedian telling a fart joke.” That was pretty shady in itself, but Katy continued to anger Mother Monster by including some elements on her Prismatic world tour that were strikingly similar to things Gaga had done in the past. Namely, Katy used a large mechanical horse and sported green hair-Gaga did both those things on her Born This Way Ball tour. Naturally, she responded to the shade with even more shade! “It looks like green hair and mechanical horses are the thing now,” she tweeted, also added the pair of looking eyes emoji. Awkward! These two have had photos together since passive-aggressively tweeting about each other, so we can only hope that the relationship is on the mend!

11 Janet Jackson Shades Madonna

Before there were names like Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, and Nicki Minaj floating around the industry, there was still just as much shade in Hollywood. Madonna and Janet Jackson shaped the '90s with their dance music, but apparently, Janet didn't like to be compared to Madonna. She didn't think too highly of her, it seems! While doing an interview, Janet was asked if there were any similarities between her and Madonna. She agreed that they both did dance music, which was “very similar”, but then she delivered a forest of shade with this call: “What I do, has class to it. I'll say that.” Out of context, she was just patting herself on the back, and there's nothing wrong with that. But considering she was just asked about Madonna, she was essentially saying that Madonna's music doesn't have any class, which is pretty insulting to Madge.

10 Beyoncé Shades A Crew Member

Though we've seen B throw some shade in her music or on very rare occasions (usually in the early days before she had a sparkly reputation to uphold), she normally keeps her cool in confrontational situations. We often see her laughing things off and acting totally gracious, but despite that, most people have a feeling that B would be an incredibly difficult person to work for because she's such a perfectionist. Beyoncé was shady back on her I Am… tour in 2009 when some poor crew member couldn't get the lights on her stage and costume working properly. As she was performing her hit song “Diva”, she asked for “lights” into the mic, and only then did her bustier finally light up as the stage lights went out. While she was dancing, B then said into the mic, “Somebody's getting fired.” Especially shady was the way B tried to time her threat to the beat of the song.

9 Britney Spears Shades Avril Lavigne

Britney Spears isn't the type to make trouble with people for no reason. With Avril Lavigne, she kind of had a reason! Avril had basically formed the habit of constantly saying mean things about Britney, claiming that she dressed “like a h*e” and danced “like a wh*re.” Britney can stand up for herself when she needs to, but she doesn't like to say anything blunt the way that Avril did. Instead, she told W magazine, “It's weird. My third album sold as much as her first one, which is very funny to me because everyone thought it didn't do that great.” All the while staying chipper and composed, she was basically saying that her selling standards are much higher than Avril's, making her much more commercially successful. You can't argue with that! Using numbers and statistics in shady comments is always the same as dropping a devastating bomb on your opponent.

8 Taylor Swift Shades Harry Styles

In 2012, Harry Styles and Taylor Swift were a thing. There were a few photos released of them strolling together through New York City, and fans around the world hailed them as the perfect couple. It isn't clear what drove these two apart exactly, but they don't appear to have ended on amicable terms. Many speculated that much of Taylor's 2013 record Red was inspired by her short-lived relationship with the former-One Direction star, and she very shadily confirmed so at the VMAs that year. As she was accepting her award, she said, “I want to thank the person who inspired the song who knows exactly who he is, because now I got one of these.” The crew knew what was up, panning straight to Harry's face as he sat with his bandmates. Harry was a good sport about it, though, later confirming that he likes “a joke as much as the next guy.”

7 Katy Perry & Miley Cyrus Shade Each Other

When video footage emerged of Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus sharing a kiss, both stars were hounded for explanations. Katy gave an interview on Australian TV saying that Miley actually tried to French-kiss her, and she pulled back because she doesn't know where that tongue has been. Really, she was saying Miley is a girl of questionable standards with that comment, so pretty shady. Miley took more of the direct route when responding, tweeting, “Girl if ur worried abt where tongues have been good thing ur ex boo is ur EX BOO cause we ALL know where THAT [tongue] been.” Ouch! Okay, so this is definitely more of a straight-up answer than shade, but the last part of the tweet is pretty passive-aggressive. Miley is referring to Katy's ex, John Mayer, who is famous for his womanizing and promiscuity. That mustn't have gone down well with the California Girls singer, who probably won't diss Miley again!

6 Cher Shades Madonna

A lot of celebrities seem to have a problem with Madonna! An interviewer asked Cher if she went jogging the way Madonna did, and Cher went on to give her opinion about her “best friend”. At first, she complimented her, saying that the “Like A Prayer” singer is “unbelievably creative.” However, the compliment quickly turned into an insult when she followed it up with saying that Madonna isn't “unbelievably talented” or “beautiful”. It seems like this was more an honest and upfront shot, but because she complimented her first, it's the mother of shady moves. She was getting at the fact that she was amazed at how well Madonna had done, which seems like a nice thing to say, but then confirmed that she was amazed because she didn't think Madonna had the looks or the talent to get there. She finished off her shade by saying she had “nothing against” Madge.

5 Zayn Malik Shades Kim Kardashian

Zayn Malik is quite a reserved celebrity compared to some of the other figures out there, but he does know how to be savage on social media. He seemingly took a dig at Kim Kardashian when he posted a tweet that said, “Love how people feel liberated naked… Read a book liberate your brain.” He didn't directly address the reality star, but we all know this was aimed at Kim because it came out just after she posted a naked photo of herself with the caption “Liberated”. Zayn followed it up by tweeting, “This is not shade… ” and then explained that he didn't mean “love” in a sarcastic way, but genuinely loved that Kim felt liberated without her clothes. Hm. We aren't sure whether Zayn really is cool with finding liberation in nudity, or whether he said that to save his skin from Kim's aggravated fans. If it's the latter, it was definitely a shady move!

4 Mariah Carey Shades Madonna

Poor Madonna! On the bright side, all this shade from the world's elite must have thickened up her skin quite a lot. Mariah Carey has had a few things to say about Madonna, and most of them have been pretty subtle and crafty. While doing an interview in the United Kingdom, she laughed with the audience about putting on an English accent when she was clearly from New York, and confirmed that she wouldn't go there and put on an English accent to pretend she was “posh and fabulous” like the audience. This was clearly a dig at Madonna, who's been known to shift between British and American accents in the past. Mariah has also said that she loved Madonna back when she was in high school, when the singer was last popular-total shade hidden behind a compliment! Mimi has feuds with a few people, but it seems like her tension with Madonna is going to stick.

3 Aretha Franklin Shades Taylor & Nicki

Aretha Franklin is one of the most legendary singers in the business, and being the Queen of Soul, her opinion kind of counts. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Aretha was asked her opinions on a number of singers in the game. When asked about Adele, she said she was a young and good singer. When asked about Alicia Keys, she said she was a good performer, writer, and producer. And when asked about Taylor swift? Aretha said that Taylor had “beautiful gowns.” Oomph! If that isn't shade, we don't know what is. She only said that Taylor wears beautiful dresses on the red carpet, which she does, but the absence of a comment on her musicianship is clearly saying a lot. When asked about her thoughts on Nicki Minaj, Aretha paused and thought before simply saying, “I'm gonna pass on that one.” Silence is often the loudest thing!

2 Reese Witherspoon Shades The Kardashians

Reese Witherspoon seems like a total sweetheart, but when she received her Generation Award at the MTV Movie Awards in 2011, she went for the Kardashians during her acceptance speech. In the nicest way possible, of course! “I just want to say to all the girls out there, like, I know it's cool to be bad, but it's also possible to make it in Hollywood without a reality show. And when I came up in this business, if you made a homemade tape, you were embarrassed and you hid it under your bed.” There is no actual confirmation that this was in reference to Kim's famous tape, but we're willing to bet that it was. It could also have been aimed at Paris Hilton, or just Hollywood it-girl culture in general, but most people are pretty sure this was a Kardashian thing. The crowd applauded Reese's speech, so there are a few who agree with her!

1 Kanye West Shades Taylor Swift

The VMAs have been the crime scene for brutal shade thrown between celebrities for years. One of the most famous cases was when Kanye West notoriously hijacked Taylor Swift's acceptance speech after she beat Beyoncé's “Single Ladies (Put A Ring on It)”. In case you don't remember, Kanye jumped up on the stage, took the microphone from Taylor as she was making her speech, and told her he was really happy for her. Then he turned to the audience and said that B's video was the best “of all time.” Though he complimented Taylor, claiming he was happy for her, his comment about B's video translated to, “Beyoncé deserved to win, not you.” These two managed to sort out their differences and even become friends, but all that's turned to dust now with mentions of Taylor in Kanye's song “Famous”. We suppose it was a bit of an unlikely friendship to begin with!