The star also spoke to the audience about the premise behind the video, which stars Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien, noting that she had to “give herself permission” to create a film about the “phase of becoming a young woman” at such a “vulnerable” age.

“I think 19 to 20 is such an interesting and profound experience for a young woman because you have one foot still in girlhood, and yet society and the world is telling you, ‘you’re an adult’,” Swift said.

Getting word that #TaylorSwift’s talk from #TribecaFilmFestival #Tribeca2022 included her playing ‘all too well’ and that Sadie Sink and Dylan O’ Brien were also there!!

More info to come!! pic.twitter.com/dYzSAUYQy6

— Erica Campbell (@ericacxmpbell) June 11, 2022

O’Brien and Sink also surprised the audience by showing up for the talk. Swift praised Sink’s performance in the film, saying she knew the actor had “this versatility” to convey “idealism” and an “unbroken spirit”.

Taylor also dug into how different shots in the film captured the ups and downs of the characters’ relationship.

“I wanted to show their closeness with handheld shots, I wanted to be so close we could count freckles,” Swift said. “As things fell apart, I wanted to reflect the remoteness she feels, this desperation she feels, because her world opened up to this big passionate intense love and all of the sudden, overnight, it boiled down to nothing, and the floor fell through.”

Sadie & Dylan joining Taylor on stage

“Welcome to our concert” pic.twitter.com/GvknVgLBHS

— Erica Campbell (@ericacxmpbell) June 12, 2022

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“Dylan, I wanted to work with so much because he has this electric charisma this character needed to be able to get away with all the gaslighting,” Swift said, as the crowd erupted in laughter. She added that at the first screening of the film, fans were yelling “gaslighter, gaslighting” during the scenes where O’Brien and Sink were fighting, which made her “feel good about the younger generation”.

Swift also said she’d be interested in making more movies in the future.

“It would be so fantastic to write and direct a feature,” she said. “I don’t see it being bigger in terms of scale. I loved making a film that was so intimate with a crew that was relatively small. Just a really solid crew of people that I trusted.”

While talking about the 10-minute version of ‘All Too Well’, Swift gave fans a shout-out, sharing that it was only released because “you guys just wouldn’t let it go”.

During Taylor’s ‘All Too Well’ performance, fans shouted along, particularly the lyrics “fuck the patriarchy” and “I’ll get older, but your lovers stay my age.”

Meanwhile, Swift was awarded an honorary doctorate from New York University last month, and gave the commencement speech for their 2022 graduates.

“It seems to me that there is a false stigma of eagerness in our culture of unbothered ambivalence,” Taylor said at the time. “Never be ashamed of trying. Effortlessness is a myth. The people who wanted it the least were the ones I wanted to date and be friends with in high school. The people who want it most are the people I now hire to work for my company.”

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 12: Taylor Swift attends the “All Too Well” New York Premiere on November 12, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)

He continued: “I was shown an email – which has now been made public – where she stated that she wanted to move on that negotiation and wasn’t interested in doing that deal anymore.”

Braun later added that he felt “Taylor has every right to re-record”, saying: “She has every right to pursue her masters, and I wish her nothing but well, and I have zero interest in saying anything bad about her.”

The music executive, who works with Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato, also said that although he’s “never said anything bad about [Swift] in the past, and I won’t start to now” that the only thing he disagrees with is “weaponizing a fanbase.”

Watch the interview below.

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Braun did not specifically say that the pop star had incited her fans to attack him, but said that fans getting riled up can lead to unsafe conditions for families. After purchasing Swift’s master, he said in a now-deleted November 2019 Instagram post that he received “numerous death threats”.

The music executive went on to say that artists who “weaponize” their fans usually know “what it’s like to be ridiculed” and said artists need to have a level of “responsibility with a fanbase.”

Swift is currently remaking all of her albums up to 2017’s ‘Reputation’ following the controversy surrounding ownership of her masters.

In a four-star review of her most recent re-recording, ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’, NME‘s Hannah Mylrea said the album “largely follows in the footsteps of ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’, celebrating the music of Swift’s past without making any major changes”.

“It’s not an exercise of rethinking and tweaking old songs, but to take back ownership of her own music. The production here is a little sharper, with the instrumentation being brought further into focus.”

Meanwhile, Swift is set to feature in the new David O. Russel film Amsterdam which will be released on November 4. The film which stars John David Washington, Margot Robbie and Christian Bale, is a period piece which has been described as an “original romantic crime epic.”

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“Calling all Swifties who Wordle,” began the podcast in a tweet. “Introducing… Taylordle, all of the words are part of the Swiftie universe.”

Holy Swift is a fan-hosted show with “three adult superfans dissect the entire Swift discography, song-by-song, in meticulous detail.” Each episode looks at one of Swift’s songs and attempts to examine the lyrics’ underlying significance and possible meaning.

Earlier in the month, it was revealed that the creator of Wordle, Josh Wardle, made the word-guessing game for his wife. After the game proved popular amongst his family, Wardle then released the game to the internet, and now different combinations of green blocks can be seen all over social media.

The creator of a five-year-old mobile app game, also called Wordle, donated recent proceeds from their massive spike in sales to charity. After 200,000 downloads in a week, the money was sent to a charity focusing on youth literacy.

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In other news, a psychological reason has been found for why so many people seem to hate seeing Wordle guesses online, according to a behavioural and data scientist.

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The new record breaks a previous top-spot also held by Swift, whose first 2020 lockdown album, Folklore, was streamed 80.6million times in its first day.

Taylor Swift CREDIT: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Swift is remaking her first six studio albums – up to and including 2017’s ‘Reputation’ – following the controversial sale of her masters in recent years. The star released ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’ in April before sharing a re-recording of ‘1989’ single ‘Wildest Dreams’ in September.

Reviewing ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’, NME wrote: “‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ largely follows in the footsteps of ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’, celebrating the music of Swift’s past without making any major changes. It’s not an exercise of rethinking and tweaking old songs, but to take back ownership of her own music.”

The singer was the musical guest on the latest edition of Saturday Night Live last night (November 13), and performed her new 10-minute version of ‘All Too Well’ from the new re-recorded version of ‘Red’.

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The extended version of the fan-favourite track is a centrepiece of ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’, and arrived alongside its own short film starring Sadie Sink (Stranger Things) and Dylan O’Brien (Maze Runner), which Swift played in front of on SNL.

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“21 days til November 12 and I *promise* it’s worth the wait,” she wrote as the caption to the post, which is soundtracked by ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’. Tune in here:

A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift)

Swift is remaking her first six studio albums – up to and including 2017’s ‘Reputation’ – following the controversial sale of her masters in recent years. The star released ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’ in April before sharing a re-recording of ‘1989’ single ‘Wildest Dreams’ last month.

‘Red (‘Taylor’s Version)’ will contain “all 30 songs that were meant to go” on the original album, as well as collaborations with Phoebe Bridgers, Ed Sheeran and more. It was initially scheduled to arrive on November 19, but was pushed forward by one week.

Last week ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version’) returned to the top of the US Billboard 200 chart owing to huge physical sales of the record this month. According to Billboard, it racked up 152,000 equivalent album units in the US in the week ending October 7 – up by 1,931 per cent on the previous week.

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“I absolutely adore you and that really made my heart skip a beat,” said Swift in response before starting her acceptance speech.

“Making this film really was a new experience for me in a lot of ways. It was in the middle of the pandemic when this was the first time most of the people who worked on it had left our houses, so I want to first of all say thank you so much to our medical team, our COVID team who tested everyone and made sure we were in a safe space to create music again, it was a really heartening experience.”

📽️| #TaylorSwift acceptance speech after winning the Grand Award for Special or Variety for "folklore: the long pond studio sessions" at #TheGraciespic.twitter.com/4p5OgKOmX7

— The Swift Society (@TheSwiftSociety) October 6, 2021

She then went on to thank “Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff, John Low and Laura Sisk, the core team of people who made the ‘Folklore‘ and ‘Evermore‘ albums. I’ll never forget our experience together. Filming the Folklore Long Pond Sessions was a way to commemorate that and I’ll always be so thankful for it.”

“But mostly the fans; thank you for caring about all of this,” she finished. “Thank you for being the reason why we could come together in this way, you made the album into what it is and you continue to blow me away all the time.”

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Folklore: The Long Pond Sessions was released in November 2020 on Disney+ and saw Swift performing tracks from ‘Folklore’ as well as telling stories about the album.

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‘Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version)’ will become the singer-songwriter’s 37th Top 40 single in the UK if it remains in the chart until this Friday (September 24).

Earlier this year, ‘Love Story (Taylor’s Version)’ and the previously unreleased ‘Mr Perfectly Fine (Taylor’s Version)’ peaked at Number 12 and Number 30 respectively. Both tracks appear on ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’, which was the first album to be re-recorded by Swift.

The singer is due to release the new version of her fourth record, ‘Red’ (2012), on November 19. It will contain “all 30 songs that were meant to go” on the original album, as well as collaborations with Phoebe Bridgers, Ed Sheeran and more.

A preview snippet of ‘Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version)’ was shared back in April as part of a trailer for DreamWorks’ film Spirit Untamed.

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She then adding Swift to her list of superstar collaborations, saying: “I’ll be speaking to them about how they feel about going into the studio with me.”

Dionne Warwick. CREDIT: Taylor Hill/Getty Images

Of her Chance The Rapper collaboration, believed to be called ‘Nothing’s Impossible’, Warwick divulged: “[We] recorded a duet and it’s lovely. It probably won’t be out until the first of the year, [we’re] getting it ready now.”

Last year, Warwick roasted both Chance and The Weeknd on Twitter. “Hi, @chancetherapper,” she wrote in one tweet. “If you are very obviously a rapper why did you put it in your stage name? I cannot stop thinking about this.”

“I will be whatever you wanna call me Ms. Warwick,” Chance said. “God bless you.”

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Of The Weeknd, she said: “The Weeknd is next. Why? It’s not even spelled correctly?” The star replied: “I just got roasted by Dionne Warwick and I feel honoured! You just made my day.”

In an interview after Warwick’s viral moment, Chance said: “She shouted me out on Twitter, and I freaked out for a while, and I hit her back, and then she started contacting me in real life.”

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In the video, Swift raps along to Dave’s ‘Screwface Capital’ – the 2019 track which hears the UK rapper namedrop the ‘Folklore’ pop star – as she switches between outfits.

“I made a link with the Russians/ Six-figure discussions, dinners in public/ My linen all tailored/ My outstanding payments swift like Taylor/ And boy I owe ‘dem men a beatin’,” Swift raps along to as the dates for the ‘Red’ vinyl appear on screen. The track is taken from Dave’s Mercury Prize-winning album, ‘Psychodrama’.

You can watch the video below:

@taylorswift

Lots going on at the moment: Red (my version) vinyl is up for presale on my site and oh I’m on tiktok now let the games begin 😺 #SwiftTok

♬ original sound – Taylor Swift

The re-recording of ‘Red’ will arrive on November 19, and it will “be the first time you hear all 30 songs that were meant to go” on the original 2012 album.

“Musically and lyrically, Red resembled a heartbroken person,” Swift said of the album back in June when she announced the new version. “It was all over the place, a fractured mosaic of feelings that somehow all fit together in the end. Happy, free, confused, lonely, devastated, euphoric, wild, and tortured by memories past.

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“I went into the studio and experimented with different sounds and collaborators. And I’m not sure if it was pouring my thoughts into this album, hearing thousands of your voices sing the lyrics back to me in passionate solidarity, or if it was simply time, but something was healed along the way.”

She added: “Sometimes you need to talk it over (over and over and over) for it to ever really be….over. Like your friend who calls you in the middle of the night going on and on about their ex, I just couldn’t stop writing. This will be the first time you hear all 30 songs that were meant to go on Red. And hey, one of them is even 10 minutes long.”

Earlier this month, Swift confirmed that Phoebe Bridgers and Ed Sheeran, among others, will appear on the new version of ‘Red’.

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“I’ve recently completed the re-recording of my 4th album, ‘Red’,” Swift wrote. “It’s really exceeded my expectations in so many ways, and one of those ways is that I thought it would be appropriate to add ‘Ronan’ to this album. ‘Red’ was an album of heartbreak and healing, of rage and rawness, of tragedy and trauma, and of the loss of an imagined future alongside someone.

Credit: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images.

“I wrote Ronan while I was making ‘Red’ and discovered your story as you so honestly and devastatingly told it. My genuine hope is that you’ll agree with me that this song should be included on this album. As my co-writer and the rightful owner of this story in its entirety, your opinion and approval of this idea really matters to me, and I’ll honor your wishes here.”

Thompson confirmed she had given the pop star permission to include ‘Ronan’ on ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’. “I tried my best to articulate how much this meant to me through my tears, but there are not enough words in the English language that will ever be able to appropriately convey my feelings about this,” she wrote, directing her words to her late son.

“Taylor has anchored you to this world so you will never be lost, and now she has ensured you will forever be safe in a new, permanent home. She is once again going to give a voice to the often voiceless, the bereaved parents of the world. ‘Red (Taylor’s version)’ will be out November 19th and on that album, there will be you.”

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Thompson also thanked Swift for “never forgetting Ronan” and for “breaking rules and breaking free”. “You are a constant source of inspiration to me in so many areas of my life, and there is nobody in the world I would rather have Ronan with than you,” she added.

Meanwhile, it was recently confirmed that Swift will not submit ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’ for Grammys consideration. She will instead focus on her second album of 2020, ‘evermore’, in the relevant categories.

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Credit: Matt Salacuse for NME

Pushed on the aforementioned questions asked by Swift, Antonoff replied: “‘Why is this OK?’ ‘Why is it OK to treat an artist like this?’ ‘Why is it OK to exercise ownership over things that someone makes from their heart and soul? Why?’

“And the answer is always the same: because that’s how it’s been. And that’s why it’s amazing if someone like her comes along and says, ‘Well, hold on: why?’”

Meanwhile, Antonoff’s side project Bleachers recently teamed up with Lana Del Rey on collaborative track ‘Secret Life’.

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“It’s been one year since we escaped the real world together and imagined ourselves someplace simpler,” Swift wrote on Instagram, sharing a pair of black and white pictures of her at the beach.
“With tall tall trees and salt air. Where you’re allowed to wear lace nightgowns that make you look like a Victorian ghost every day & no one will side eye you cause no one is around. It’s just you and your imaginary cabin and the stories you make up to pass the time. To say thank you for all you have done to make this album what it was, I wanted to give you the original version of The Lakes.”
She concluded: “Happy 1 year anniversary to Rebekah, Betty, Inez, James, Augustine, and the lives we all created around them. Happy Anniversary, folklore.”

You can listen to the orchestral version of ‘The Lakes’ below:

Swift has also unveiled a ‘Folklore’ anniversary merch collection available for just 72 hours.
The collection includes: a “lost in the memory” hoodie; a “beautiful things” keepsake box; an “I would die for you in secret” hoodie; a “tied me to you” bracelet; a “dreamt of you all summer” long sleeve top; a “picture me in the weeds” t-shirt; an “auroras and sad prose” notebook, and more.

The merch line is available to purchase until July 26 at 3pm EST – you can get it here.

Meanwhile, Swift will not be submitting the re-recording of her 2008 album ‘Fearless’ for Grammys consideration, her label has confirmed.

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According to Billboard, Swift will not be submitting ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’, and will instead focus on nominating ‘Evermore’ for all eligible categories. The singer will also be doing the same for the Country Music Association Awards.

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“When I’m talking to my friends who are musicians and entertainers, I say, ‘If we have a socialistic government – if we have Marxism – you are going to be the first ones who will be cut off because the state would have to approve your music,” she said.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn continues her running feud with Taylor Swift, warning her that if we have a “socialistic govt,” the state would have to “approve her music,” and won’t “allow women to dress, or sing, to be on stage, or entertain.” pic.twitter.com/HGXziiai8K

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 8, 2021

“Taylor Swift came after me in my 2018 campaign,” she continued. “But Taylor Swift would be the first victim of that because when you look at Marxist, socialistic societies, they do not allow women to dress or sing or be onstage or to entertain or the type of music she would have. They don’t allow protection of private intellectual property rights.”

Swift has not yet responded to Blackburn’s comments at the time of writing.

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In 2018, the pop star broke years of political silence to back two Democrat candidates in the US midterm elections that were taking place that year, speaking out against Blackburn in the process. “As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn,” she said.

“Her voting record in Congress appals and terrifies me…She voted against equal pay for women. She voted against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape. She believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples. She also believes they should not have the right to marry. These are not MY Tennessee values.”

Meanwhile, Swift has been given a writing credit on Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Deja Vu’ alongside Jack Antonoff and St. Vincent. The teen singer had previously acknowledged the track took inspiration from Swift’s ‘Cruel Summer’.

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See some of the tweets regarding the rumoured collaboration below.

🚨🎶 A song called “Broken Hearts” has been registered via @sesac, written by Adele and Taylor Swift! It is rumored to be on the RED #TaylorsVersion album 👀 pic.twitter.com/G9Q363KzVx

— Taylor Swift Updates (@SwiftNYC) July 2, 2021

Taylor Swift and Adele have co-written a song 'Broken Hearts' that may be one of the Vault tracks on RED (Taylor's Version)

OMG AN ICONIC COLLAB IF THIS LEGIT PLEASE MAKE IT HAPPEN ON NOV 19th.
#RedTaylorsVersion @taylorswift13 @Adele pic.twitter.com/I5G7m9d8GC

— BurningRED🧣 (@TaylorluvsJessa) July 2, 2021

A post shared by Pop Faction (@popfaction)

Swift has been prolific in the past year, releasing two new albums (‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’) on top of her re-recording project and, most recently, collaborating with The National‘s Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver‘s Justin Vernon on the Big Red Machine record.

Yesterday (June 2), Dessner shared a new Swift-featuring single ‘Renegade’, the third preview of the band’s upcoming second album ‘How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?’.

• READ MORE: Everything we know so far about Adele’s new album

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Adele fans, meanwhile, are still waiting for her fourth album – and her first since 2015’s hugely successful ’25’.

In May, the ‘Someone Like You’ singer offered a progress update during her opening monologue while presenting Saturday Night Live, explaining why she was appearing as the host and not musical guest.

“My album’s not finished, and I’m also too scared to be both,” she told the audience. “I’d rather put on some wigs …have a glass of wine or six and just see what happens.”

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Fans were quick to spot that the teaser features handwriting that they believe to be Swift’s, fuelling rumours that she’s involved with the new material.

Notably, Vernon shared a snippet of what appeared to be a Big Red Machine track with Swift during an Instagram Live session in April.

“That’s the awesome Taylor one. I think this should be the single,” Vernon can be heard saying in the clip. He and Dessner both worked with Swift on her acclaimed 2020 albums ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’.

Dessner announced last year that Big Red Machine were working on a follow-up to their self-titled debut album, and that Swift had been providing feedback on their new material. Later, he also said that he expects to collaborate with her further in the future.

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“Inevitably, I think we will continue to be in each other’s artistic and personal lives. I don’t know exactly what the next form that will take, but certainly, it will continue,” he said.

In March, meanwhile, Dessner paid tribute to Swift after ‘Folklore’ won Album Of The Year at the Grammys, crediting her with “restoring my faith in music”.

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“Sometimes you need to talk it over (over and over and over) for it to ever really be….over. Like your friend who calls you in the middle of the night going on and on about their ex, I just couldn’t stop writing. This will be the first time you hear all 30 songs that were meant to go on Red. And hey, one of them is even 10 minutes long.”

The next album that I’ll be releasing is my version of Red, which will be out on November 19. This will be the first time you hear all 30 songs that were meant to go on Red. And hey, one of them is even ten minutes long🧣 https://t.co/FOBLS5aHpS pic.twitter.com/6zWa64Owgp

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 18, 2021

Swift is remaking all her albums up to 2017’s ‘Reputation’ after the rights to the records were sold by her former record label without her permission.

In April the singer-songwriter shared the re-recorded version of her second album, 2008’s ‘Fearless’ – titled ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version’) – as well as a previously unheard collaboration with Maren Morris called ‘You All Over Me’.

Addressing the process of laying down ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Swift said that she “tried to create a ‘same but better’ version” of the album.

She told People in April: “In terms of production, I really wanted to stay very loyal to the initial melodies that I had thought of for these songs.

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“And so we really did go in and try to create a ‘the same but better’ version. We kept all the same parts that I initially dreamed up for these songs. But if there was any way that we could improve upon the sonic quality, we did.”

Taylor Swift performs live in 2019. CREDIT: Dc/Media Punch/Alamy Live News

The pop star once again teamed up with her collaborators Jack Antonoff and The National’s Aaron Dessner – who both worked on last year’s ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’ – for the project, while also bringing in the musicians involved in the original ‘Fearless’ as well as her touring band.

“But yeah, I did go in line by line and listen to every single vocal and think, you know, what are my inflections here,” Swift continued. “If I can improve upon it, I did. But I really did want this to be very true to what I initially thought of and what I had initially written. But better. Obviously.”

It’s not known what order Swift will continue to re-record and re-release her albums in.

Meanwhile, Swift was honoured last week with the National Music Publishers Association’s Songwriter Icon Award.

As reported by Variety, in her speech, Swift thanked her publisher Universal, fans and songwriters, saying the practice of writing songs remains “magical and mystical” to her.

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Little added that he feels “incredibly grateful” for his career to date and that it is “really nice to know that these songs will be so well taken care of by Merck and his team of passionate music people”.

Lorde. CREDIT: Burak Cingi/Redferns.

The investment company has made waves in recent months after purchasing the catalogues of artists including Lindsey Buckingham and Blondie, as well as Jimmy Iovine’s worldwide producer royalties and half of Neil Young’s songs in a deal thought to be worth an estimated $150 million (£110 million).

Shakira also sold all 145 of her songs, including ‘Hips Don’t Lie’, ‘She Wolf’ and ‘Whenever, Wherever’, all part of the deal.

Hipgnosis are known for turning royalties into a steady income stream – with the firm making money every time one of its songs is played on the radio or featured in a film/TV show.

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Earlier this year, Mercuriadis said that cultural importance is key when it comes to the artists whose back catalogues they have acquired.

Speaking to MusicWeek, Mercuriadis explained how he set about purchasing the back catalogues after securing a staggering $1bn in investments.

“So, with over £1bn invested, we only own 57,000 songs. But 10,000 of them are Top 10 songs, almost 3,000 of them are No.1 songs. So it’s a very small catalogue, relative to Universal, Warner or Sony. But the ratio of success within that catalogue is very high, there are very few songs that are not successes.

“For me, the criteria is not just predictable and reliable income, but it’s cultural importance as well. Everything that I buy is proven, it’s successful, but it’s also culturally important.”

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As the tracking week is not over until Thursday (June 3), the star is expected to increase her sales – and record – even further in the coming days.

Taylor Swift. CREDIT: Beth Garrabrand

Before White, Pearl Jam held the title with their 1994 album ‘Vitalogy’, which shifted 34,000 copies in one week. It was the first album to chart in the Billboard 200 through vinyl sales alone since CDs began to dominate the music market.

Since ‘Evermore’ was released digitally, it has since been issued on CD, cassette and vinyl. The latter version was only just released due to vinyl taking the longest time to produce. The album was Swift’s second surprise release of 2020 following ‘Folklore’.

In 2021, the musician has not been quieter so far. In April, she released the first of her re-recorded albums, sharing ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’. It topped the Billboard 200 upon its release – and would have still gotten to Number One had it not sold a single physical copy, thanks to some impressive streaming numbers.

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The 26 tracks on the record garnered just short of 143 million plays on platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music, which, when broken down, is equivalent to 109,000 streaming equivalent album units.

Meanwhile, Swift has been teasing yet more re-recorded music with previews of a new version of ‘1989’’s ‘Wildest Dreams’.

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Credit: Stefan Kohli.

Other speculation, per Variety, was that Rodrigo had sampled a new version already put down by Swift for her planned re-recording of ‘Reputation’. However, neither is the case; Rodrigo only borrowed melodic elements of ‘New Year’s Day’, of which Swift and Antonoff own the full publishing rights and granted permission to Rodrigo

Additionally, Swift fans noted that there’s a nod to Swift in Rodrigo’s song title, since as 1 + 3 = 13 – which is Swift’s lucky number.

In last week’s NME Big Read cover feature, Rodrigo spoke of her desire that people take her seriously as a songwriter.

“With ‘Drivers License’ [her hit, Swift-approved debut single], there were a lot of people who were like, ‘Yo, I’ve never heard of this girl before but I really like this song’, which to me was the dream – to get a brand new introduction to people just as a songwriter,” she said.

“I consider myself a songwriter first and I’m really happy that people are starting to recognise me as such.”

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Elsewhere in NME‘s conversation, too, she insisted that it’s important to her to be “taken seriously as a songwriter”.

‘Sour’ is released today (May 20) in the US at 12am ET/9pm PT, and 5am BST tomorrow (May 21) in the UK.

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During a recent conversation with People, Swift explained of recreating ‘Fearless’ (2008): “In terms of production, I really wanted to stay very loyal to the initial melodies that I had thought of for these songs.

“And so we really did go in and try to create a ‘the same but better’ version. We kept all the same parts that I initially dreamed up for these songs. But if there was any way that we could improve upon the sonic quality, we did.”

Swift once again teamed up with her collaborators Jack Antonoff and The National’s Aaron Dessner – who both worked on last year’s ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’ – for the project, while also bringing in the musicians involved in the original ‘Fearless’ as well as her touring band.

“But yeah, I did go in line by line and listen to every single vocal and think, you know, what are my inflections here,” Swift continued. “If I can improve upon it, I did. But I really did want this to be very true to what I initially thought of and what I had initially written. But better. Obviously.”

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In a four-star review of ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’, NME wrote: “Swift never cringes away from her younger self. Instead, she revisits the songs with kindness and affection, celebrating the success of her teenage releases.”

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• Taylor Swift

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The 15-second clip is soundtracked by Swift’s new version of the single, the third to be lifted from her second studio record ‘Fearless’ (2008). You can watch the video below.

You ok? NO cause I sent my two kids @Olivia_Rodrigo and @conangray my new version of You Belong With Me and THEY ARE SO CUTE IT PHYSICALLY HURTS ME
((Album out at midnight!)) pic.twitter.com/yDJusP8TAs

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) April 8, 2021

conan and olivia rodrigo teasing an unreleased clip of “white horse (taylor’s version)from @taylorswift13’s new fearless album! (4/8) pic.twitter.com/7Icmf6um74

— conan gray updates (@conanupdating) April 8, 2021

.@GMA EXCLUSIVE: @taylorswift13 shares a clip from her new album's title track #FearlessTaylorsVersion along with a message for all you fans!https://t.co/8jmpk5lalq pic.twitter.com/bO5oVActs3

— Good Morning America (@GMA) April 8, 2021

“You ok? NO cause I sent my two kids Olivia Rodrigo and Conan Gray my new version of ‘You Belong With Me’ and THEY ARE SO CUTE IT PHYSICALLY HURTS ME ((Album out at midnight!)),” Swift wrote.

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Posting a Reel on Instagram, Rodrigo also gave a glimpse of ‘White Horse (Taylor’s version)’ over a tongue-in-cheek visual of herself and Gray in cowboy hats. Elsewhere, Swift shared a portion of the re-recorded ‘Fearless’ title track during an appearance on today’s Good Morning America.

Last month, Olivia Rodrigo revealed that Taylor Swift sent her a ring matching the one she wore around the time of her album ‘Red’ (2012), along with numerous other gifts. The ‘Drivers License’ singer hailed Swift “the kindest individual in the whole world” following the gesture.

‘Fearless’ (Taylor’s Version)’ is set for release tomorrow (April 9), with Swift posting the record’s tracklisting last week after setting a cryptic puzzle for fans.

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• Conan Gray
• Olivia Rodrigo
• Pop
• Taylor Swift

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