Supergroup of tribute acts, including 'Dolly' and 'Britney' fight Meta 'ban'

Video Report by Granada Reports journalist Claire Hannah

Being a tribute act is not your average job, but a woman from Runcorn is lifting the lid on what life is like when your wages come from pretending to be someone else.

Katy Ellis is a Taylor Swift tribute act, a job she's been doing for the past eight years.

It's taken her around the world, to festivals, on university tours, numerous gigs, and also means she has a room crammed full of exact replicas of Taylor Swift's stage outfits over the years - many of them expertly handcrafted by a dressmaker in Blackpool, and, let me tell you, there are a lot of sequins!

But, how did it all start?

Katy had always wanted to be on stage. She started singing at the age of seven, took up singing and piano lessons weekly and trained in musical theatre.

From there, she spent four years working as a singer on various cruise ships. While she was onboard a Spanish Cruise ship because she had black hair and big round blue eyes, she was forever getting called Katy Perry.

When she came home she went to see Katy Perry in concert, was blown away and decided to start a tribute act to her.

The Taylor tribute act started shortly after that and with demand for Taylor exploding, this became Katy's main work, which she says suits her just fine.

"I have been a fan of Taylor’s since her very first album ‘Taylor Swift’," she said.

"I absolutely love my job, my favourite things about it are singing my favourite songs to people who also love the songs.

"Also being someone else for an hour or two is always good, especially when its Taylor Swift."

Each year Katy and her band put on a special show for children with conditions including autism, which would make it stressful for them to go to the average show.

Katy says the lights at the Chaps gig in Chester are dimmed, don't flash as much, and the music is turned down slightly, along with there being more interaction with the audience.

Katy is one of a number of tribute acts hitting out at Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram for what they say is an "unfair" ban from the sites.

She joined celebrity impersonators including George Michael, Britney Spears, Adele, Dolly Parton and Freddie Mercury on Tuesday 27 June outside the London offices of Meta, protesting at its community standards, which do not allow accounts that "impersonate or falsely represent" a person, brand or business.

The campaigners claim the rules have resulted in some of the tribute acts losing their pages on Facebook and Instagram, which had garnered thousands of followers.

They say the pages are used for promotion and ticket sales and the pages being taken down is damaging their livelihoods.

Katy said: "I was on a flight from Ireland to Liverpool, uploading pictures and videos from a performance, and when I landed, my Instagram page had just been taken down.

"It clearly said I was a tribute act, and not pretending I was Taylor Swift, so now I've lost thousands of followers I'd built up and have had to start a new page."

Meta says it allows fan and tribute act Facebook pages and Instagram accounts if users state they are not "speaking in the voice of" that person or brand.

Katy said: "I think if somebody was impersonating somebody in a dangerous way, taking their identity, yes, that's dangerous, but we do all state that we are tribute acts and we are not trying to be that person, just when we're on stage."

At the protest in London Katy, who was sporting Swift's ringleader costume from the Red tour, held a sign referencing her popular track I Knew You Were Trouble, which read: "I knew your politics were trouble."

Katy said she and many of the other tribute acts have tried to get in touch with Meta, only to find it impossible to get a response from the company, which is why they protested outside the offices in London.

She told ITV Granada when they started their protest, the doors were locked, staff moved to the back, and no-one came out to speak to them about Meta's community standards.

Violating the community standards puts any tribute act or professional impersonator using Facebook or Instagram at risk of being banned from the platform.

The policy states: "We don't allow people on Facebook to pretend to be someone well-known or speak for them without permission."

A Meta spokesperson said: "We've always allowed tribute acts on Facebook and Instagram, and we know our platforms play an important role in helping these communities connect with fans.

"Our technology sometimes makes mistakes and we've reinstated a number of pages and accounts that were wrongly removed for impersonation.

"We understand how frustrating this can be, which is why we encourage tribute acts to make it clear in their bio or profile that they're not the real individual."

ITV Granada has since been in touch with Meta to ask about the issue of them being hard to get hold of.

As yet the company has not responded.