On Wednesday night, Taylor Swift joined Dua Lipa, SZA, and Becky G for Amazon's Prime Concert, presented by Amazon Music. In the wake of her well-documented problem with Scooter Braun acquiring Big Machine Records and therefore her masters, fans wondered: Would Swift speak of the drama at the Prime Concert?
As Swift promised in her message to fans on her Tumblr page, she, indeed, is betting on her future. She opened her performance (the final of the night) with her first single off upcoming album Lover "ME!", though this time her collaborator Brendon Urie was not in attendance. In keeping with the night's celebration of women, Swift took the stage alongside women backup singers who provided Urie's vocals.
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The rest of the concert, however, was an ode to her past. She followed up "ME!" with her hit single "Blank Space" off her album 1989, much to the delight of the many, many Swifties in the audience.
She then went back even further — like, all the way to "Love Story."
"I started out in country music, and one thing that has been really wonderfully consistent throughout the entire time that I've been making music is that I write all of it. It's my favourite thing to write songs and they go out into the world and you guys are nice enough to care about the words that I've written...anyone who has been singing the words to this, it's like, yes, thank you," Swift said of the song, which debuted in 2008. "When I was 17 I ended up writing this song in my room when I was by myself and you really never know what's going to happen in life, and I didn't know that would go out into the world and completely change my life."
Other songs Swift performed included "I Knew You Were Trouble" off her album Red, "Welcome To New York" off 1989, and "Delicate" off Reputation. While the masters of these songs are owned by Braun, Swift subtly reminds everyone that they are the products of her creativity — she wrote every single one.
Before going into "You Need To Calm Down," her latest single off her new album, Swift teased the theme of her upcoming album.
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"I have a new album coming out, I'm really excited about it. I'm so excited to share it with you, I really really am, because it's called Lover. The album is a love letter to love itself. I think that love is such an inspiring thing to write about, especially for us songwriters. Love is so many things, love is complexity, love is pain, love is hope, love is equality."
Her final song of the night? "Shake It Off," where she maybe emphasised those "dirty dirty cheats of the world" — but read into that what you want to.
Just remember: The mind behind all those hits? Always and forever, Taylor Swift.