Taylor Swift just gave her first public performance of the new year.
Swift surprised the crowd at the 1975’s concert in London at the O2 Arena on Jan. 12, performing an acoustic version of her latest single, “Anti-Hero,” from her brand-new album, Midnights, live.
The 33-year-old Pennsylvania native entered the stage to the screams of adoring fans wearing a silver dress and matching heels. After a tech handed her a white guitar, she looked out into the crowd and asked the fans in attendance if it was okay for her to sing them a song.
“I was thinking I would do one I’ve never played live before,” Swift added as she began to strum the opening notes of her latest single. “It would be so presumptuous to say, ‘if you know it, sing it.’ But if you do…” she smiled, continuing the performance.
In addition to performing “Anti-Hero,” Swift treated fans of The 1975 to a cover of the band’s song, “The City.”
Swift’s surprise visit to the band’s show was not unwelcome. She got to hear their latest album, Being Funny in a Foreign Language, prior to its release, The 1975 frontman Matty Healy told Pitchfork during an interview last August. Swift also played her latest LP, Midnights for the band before it dropped on Oct. 21, the outlet indicated.
Healy had previously shared that he and his bandmates would love to collaborate with Swift at some point during a BBC Radio 1 interview in October. “We haven’t done it yet,” Healy said at the time.
Then, in a November 2022 interview with Audacy, Healy revealed he and his bandmates worked with Swift “a bit” on Midnights but “the version of it never came out.”
Their work with Swift and new album aside, The 1975 is busy performing on their Being Funny in a Foreign Language Tour, whose next stop is in Birmingham U.K. on Jan. 15 at Resorts World Arena.
Swift is also gearing up to head out on her much-anticipated Eras Tour, which kicks off on Mar. 17 in Glendale, Arizona at State Farm Stadium featuring support from Paramore and GAYLE.
The country-pop superstar’s upcoming tour drew national attention after ticket sales and distribution company, Ticketmaster, botched its pre-sale, resulting in crashing servers, long wait times, and the ire of loyal Swift fans everywhere. Due to an insufficient amount of tickets remaining, the company eventually canceled the general on sale, prompting Swift to break her silence on the matter.
“It’s really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these [fan] relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse,” Swift said. “There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets and I’m trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward. I’m not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them multiple times if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could.”
“It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them,” Swift continued, adding that she hoped to create more opportunities for her and her fans to sing her songs together.
Swift’s tenth studio album, Midnights dropped on Oct. 21.
